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WHAT COULD GERMANY DO 
FOR IRELAND? 



Then first will be born the Millennium of Peace — 
And, oh! what a garland will bloom in the sun 

When the oak-leaf of Deutschland, the olive of Greece 
And the trefoil of Ireland are blended in one! 

James Clarekce Mangan. 
1803-1849 



What Could Germany 
Do For Ireland? 



BY 

JAMES K. McGUIRE 

Author of 
^The King, the Kaiser and Irish Freedom.** 

With Introduction by 
DR. THOMAS ADDIS EMMET 




NEW YORK 

WOLFE TONE COMPANY 

1916 






Copyright, 1916 
By WOLFE TONE COMPANY 



y?^ 

JAN !7|9J6 

©C!,A4i848i 



Dedicated to the Memory of 

SToijn Mittttl 

Centenary 
1815 November 22 1915 

The imperishable names of all patriots enshrined in 
American hearts are those of men and women who dared 
face and contest, in the name of liberty, hostile majorities 
at home and abroad. John Mitchel resembled Thomas 
Jefferson in that his writings remain the greatest force in 
his country for the perpetuation of the spirit of freedom. 

Sentenced to fourteen years imprisonment (1848) to 
the convict colony of Van Diemens Land, he writes from 
his cell in Newgate Prison: "For me, I abide my fate 
joyfully; for I know that, whatever betide me, my work is 
nearly done. I thank God for it. The liberty of Ireland 
may come sooner or later, by peaceful negotiation or 
bloody conflict, but it is sure. The day is coming of 
retribution and the world will hear the crash of the down- 
fall of the British Empire." 



CONTENTS 



INTEODUCTION 17 

PEEPACE 31 

CHAPTER I 

THE GAELIC KENAISSANCE 35 

What the Gaelic Renaissance stands for. — Neces- 
sity for racial unity and conservation. — National- 
ism not Socialism present key-note of interna- 
tional affairs. — Ireland's part in the War. — 
Industrial prosperity to arise from development 
of agriculture and manufactures. — Improvement 
of social conditions essential. — How Connemara 
may be saved. — Economic lessons from Germany. 
— How the Irish outside Ireland may help. 

CHAPTER II 

IRELAND AT THE CROSSROADS 39 

Where the heart of the British Empire lies. — 
Possession of Egypt and Asia-Minor vital to Brit- 
ain's over-seas dominions. — Asia-Minor in the 
light of history. — Napoleon's efforts to disrupt 
the British Empire defeated by Anglo-Turkish Al- 
liance. — British diplomatic failures in 1915. — 
How the Germanic-Turkish Alliance imperils the 
solidarity of the British Empire. — The Turks as 
fighters. — The Anglo-French disasters at the Dar- 
danelles. — Overthrow of Russia as a European 
Power. — Resurrection of the ancient Kingdom of 
Poland. — How Ireland received the news of Brit- 
ish military and naval failures. — The effect on 
the hopes of the Irish people. — How a German- 
Irish Alliance would ensure European Peace.— 
The poverty of Ireland attributable to the Eng- 
lish occupation. — King George's appeal. — The des- 
perate plight of England. — Irish relations to Eng- 



8 Contents 

land in the light of history. — ^Richness of Irish 
resources. — ^What Germany could do for Irish 
independence and prosperity. 

CHAPTER III 

IBISH HOPES IN" GEEMANY OE ENGLAND ? 54 

Impossibility of German defeat by the Allies. — 
The elimination of Russia as a factor in the east- 
ern theatre. — The campaign of 1915 contrasted 
with Napoleon's invasion of Russia. — British 
prophecies of Russian triumph falsified. — Ireland 
and Poland. — ^How the two kingdoms stand 
towards each other. — Irish sympathies with Ger- 
many. — The Irish Nationalist press of America 
favors Germany. — The reign of terror in Ireland. 
— Failure of recruiting. — How England slanders 
other nations. — Increase in England's standing 
army of occupation in Ireland. — Why some Irish- 
men join England's army. — Dr. Thomas Addis 
Emmet and England's brutal rule in Ireland. — The 
destruction of Irish industries. — The fate of 
Sligo. — Housing conditions in Ireland. — Irish and 
German conditions contrasted. — The passing of 
"Home Rule." — Ireland to review her position. — 
German treatment of Poland a lesson to all small 
nations. — How Ireland remains true to her tradi- 
tions. — The efficiency of German organization. — 
Ireland's immunity from attack by Germany. — 
How Ireland regards Germany. — The true sig- 
nificance of German-Irish understanding. 

CHAPTER IV 

THE EEAL EOOTS OF GEEMAN SUCCESS 84 

Bismarck's conception of the State in respect to 
the worker. — How Germany protects her people 
socially. — English Acts based on German models. 
— German social legislation. — Bismarck's concep- 
tion of German superiority fulfilled. — Physical 
disabilities of the English workers. — English un- 
preparedness a revelation to mankind. — Her 
cocksuredness proved her undoing. — The lesson 
to Ireland. 



Contents 9 

CHAPTER V 

THE STATE OR THE INDIVIDUAL f 96 

A War of two civilizations. — The English and 
German concepts of civilization compared. — Eng- 
land ever the foe of true democracy. — Her treat- 
ment of Persia, Korea, and Morocco. — ^Voluntary 
enlistment contrasted with universal service. — 
The strength of national solidarity. — Germany's 
economic strength after a year of war. — English 
jealousy of German efficiency. — What Ireland 
lacks Germany can supply. 

CHAPTER VI 

THE GATEWAY OF EUEOPE 115 

Ireland, the Gateway of Europe. — ^Admiral 
Mahan's conception of Ireland's strategical situa- 
tion. — Her geographical position in Europe. — 
England's lordship of the high seas dependent on 
possession of Ireland. — Ireland not physically 
connected with Great Britain. — The area and phy- 
sical characteristics of the island. — The spacious 
harbors of Ireland. — The position of Korea and 
Ireland contrasted. — The occupation of Ireland by 
Germany would cause England's downfall. — ^War 
demonstrated Ireland's commanding position in 
Europe. — Effectiveness of German submarine war- 
fare off Irish coasts. — The English conception of 
Ireland's importance to the British Empire. — 
Napoleon's view on Ireland's position. — Danish, 
French and Spanish efforts in Ireland. — Im- 
portance of control of North Atlantic approaches 
to Europe. — England's peril from starvation. — Ire- 
land as a food-producing country and as a center 
of recruitment for the English armed forces. — 
Ireland's liberation from English thraldom will 
mean the setting of the sun on the British Empire. 

CHAPTER YII 

IRISH AGRICULTURAL PROSPECTS 128 

The English occupation of Ireland. — Her attitude 
towards Irish economic developments. — Irish sys- 



10 Contents 

tern of agriculture, fostered by England, uneco- 
nomic and backward. — Scientific farming un- 
known. — Ireland's dependence on America for her 
daily bread. — Irish linen mills dependent on for- 
eign countries for flax supplies. — The richness 
of the Irish soil. — Possible agricultural develop- 
ments. — Beet-growing and sugar refining. — How 
German science backed by American capital could 
develop Ireland. — Cattle multiplying, human be- 
ings dying. — Wretched lot of agricultural la- 
borers. — The spread of cattle ranches eliminates 
small proprietors. — ^What Germany has accom- 
plished for her agriculturalists. — ^How German 
methods may improve Irish farming. 

CHAPTER VIII 

MEATS AND PROVISIONS 140 

How cattlei have displaced, men in Ireland. — 
Destruction of the Irish dairying industry. — The 
raising of "lean" cattle an economic weakness. — 
How the fertility of the soil is depreciated. — Ab- 
sence of abattoirs in Ireland. — How the dressed 
meat industry would change agricultural condi- 
tions in Ireland. — Its effect on the industrial life 
of the country. — The establishment of leather and 
subsidiary industries. — How Irish- American capi- 
tal and experience can help Ireland to better 
living. 

CHAPTER IX 

RECLAMATION AND REFORESTATION 148 

The health of the Irish people. — ^How it is affected. 
Findings of Eoyal Commission on Arterial Drain- 
age. — Extent of waste land in Ireland. — The 
operations of the bogs of Ireland. — How the 
floodings of the Shannon, Barrow and other rivers 
impede agriculture. — The loss to the country 
through neglected waste-lands. — Royal Commis- 
sions impeach British Government of neglect. — 
Reclamation financially successful. — What rec- 
lamation has done for Europe. — How the Govern- 
ments of Holland, France, Germany, Hungary and 



Contents 11 

Austria have dealt with the problem. — The 
urgency of the problem to Ireland. — ^Need for 
afforestation. — English purposeful neglect of Irish 
resources. — Deserted and neglected appearance of 
the countryside. — English tree-planting in India. 
— The example of Les Landes in France. — What 
Germany has accomplished with silviculture. — 
How the Irish Parliament before the Union dealt 
with the problem. — Wealth derivable from tree- 
culture. — Effects of forests on soils, climates, etc. 
— Subsidiary industries likely to arise. — Need for 
statesmanship in solving Irish problems. — Ger- 
man methods. 



CHAPTER X 

POETLAND CEMENT MILLS 166 

Ireland's immense deposits of limestones and mar- 
bles. — The growing use of cement. — Only one small 
factory in Ireland. — The industry discouraged by 
English officials in Ireland. — How Irish railways 
cripple Irish industrial enterprises. — Suitable dis- 
tricts in Ireland for erection of cement mills. — 
The future of acetylene gas generated from cal- 
cium carbide a product of limestone. — Need for 
capital in Ireland. 

CHAPTER XI 

POWER AND FUEL 169 

Importance of power and fuel in industrial en- 
terprises. — Attitude of English rulers to Ireland's 
power and fuel resources. — England's coal and 
iron resources the basic of her industrial pre- 
eminence. — How Belgium, Holland and Switzer- 
land confound British theory. — Swiss prosperity 
built up on the use of her available water-power, 
— Ireland's unbridled water-power. — The rainfall 
in Ireland. — Available horsepower of the country. 
— The river Shannon's horsepower at Killaloe. — 
Position and power of Irish rivers favorable to 
extensive industrial activities. — Cheapness of 
power, a factor of importance in production. — 
The turbine engine. — The production of electricity 



12 Contents 

both cheap and easy. — England underestimates 
Ireland's coal resources. — Report to Geological 
Congress at Toronto. — Professor Hull's estimate. 
— Need for scientific survey of Ireland. — Output 
of coal in Ireland. — The area and position of the 
Wolfhill Colliery. — The Castlecomer Colliery. — 
The Arigna coal and iron mines. — Their develop- 
ment impeded by lack of transit facilities. — The 
English Houses of Parliament controlled by Eng- 
lish coal-owners. — How Irish coal-mining is ob- 
structed. — The duty of an Irish Government. — 
The due development of the coal fields as sources 
of wealth, of fuel, of power, of employment for the 
future Irish nation. 



CHAPTER XII 

THE PEAT EESOUECES OF IRELAND 188 

The true gold mines of Ireland. — English neglect 
of Irish peat resources, — How distinguished Irish- 
men view Ireland's peat bogs. — Their area. — Irish 
climatic, labor and general conditions favorable to 
development of peat fuel. — The suitability of 
Shannon district for such development. — Peat fuel 
compared with coal. — Ireland's annual coal bill. — 
Col. Warburton's scheme. — Subsidiary industries 
that would arise. — How Germany has developed 
her waste and peat lands. — Their importance to 
the Empire. — A lesson to Ireland. 

CHAPTER XIII 

THE lEISH FISHEKIES 201 

Ireland buys her fish supplies from England, why? 
— The Irish naturally sailors. — The records of 
English and American navies cited. — British rule 
cause of all Irish economic ills. — Ireland's success- 
ful fisheries in olden days. — The Dutch fishing 
fleet in Irish waters. — Spanish fishers off Irish 
coasts. — English, Scotch and French trawlers now 
reap the harvests of the Irish seas. — The tragic de- 
cline in Irish fisheries. — The Irish language 
passing with the dying Irish fishermen. — The de- 
struction of Irish fishing industry by English- 



Contents 13 

made laws. — Untold wealth awaiting Irish people 
in the deep-sea fisheries off Irish coasts. — The 
rich salmon fisheries of Irish rivers. — ^Markets for 
fish in both Germany and America. — Require- 
ments of Irish fishers. — ^Power boats, modern gear, 
curing station, capital, transit facilities, piers 
and harbors. — How Queenstown could build up a 
paying industry for her citizens now idle through 
boycott of port by English shipping. — How Ger- 
many and other countries have dealt with the 
question. 

CHAPTER XIV 

lEELAND IN OLDEN DAYS. 216 

World ignorance of Ireland result of studied Eng- 
lish policy. — Ancient Irish civilization. — The earl- 
iest inhabitants of Ireland. — Ireland's former ex- 
tensive external trade. — Irish intercourse with 
Europe. — National love of learning. — Scotland and 
England Christianized by Irish. — Irish seats of 
learning founded in capitals of chief European na- 
tions. — English wilful destruction of Irish records. 
— Why Europe should know and remember Irish 
history. — What Germany has done for Ireland's 
language. — Dr. Kuno Meyer's researches and 
labors for the Irish language. — The irony of Fate. 
— Descendants of landlords who harassed the 
Irish in Ireland, now being sacrificed by England 
on the continental battle-fields. — Importance of 
reviving the ancient Celtic civilization. 

CHAPTER XV 

IRELAND UNDEE lEISH PAELIAMENTS 231 

Prior to 1800 A. D. Ireland ruled by laws made 
by Parliaments in Ireland. — The political Union 
with England brought about by most brutal 
methods. — The Great Feis at Tara. — Poyning's 
Law. — The Parliament of James the Second at 
Dublin, 1689. — Grattan's Parliament. — How the 
French Revolution affected the destiny of Ireland. 
— England's admitted inability and unprepared- 
ness a factor in winning Free Trade and a free 



14 Contents 

Parliament for Ireland. — The birth and growth of 
the first Irish Volunteers. — The Declaration of 
Irish Independence. — England's Act of Renuncia- 
tion of 1782. — The phenomenal progress of Ire- 
land down to 1800. — The lesson for the men of 
today. 

CHAPTER XVI 

THE WORLD ^S EECOED BEOKEN IN FINANCE .... 242 

Germany's domestic achievements during the war 
as remarkable as her military triumphs. — The 
wonderful stability of the German Empire after a 
year of unparalleled warfare. — The financial in- 
solvency of the Allies. — American bankers and 
mimition makers financing the Allies. — Hostility 
of the American public to the Allies' war loan. — 
Successful issue of Germany's third domestic war 
loan. — A triumph in finance.— Failure of English 
civil heads in domestic statesmanship. — Germany's 
trained civilian leaders. — Why Germany can fight 
indefinitely. — National solidarity of German peo- 
ples during the war. — Financial support freely 
offered by Germans for support of the cause of the, 
Fatherland. — The value to Germany of the cap- 
tured territories. — What Ireland has to learn from 
Germany. 

CHAPTER XVII 

NEW LIGHT ON THE CAUSES OF THE WAR 255 

England's misrepresentation of the origin of the 
war. — How England wages war. — The Franco-Rus- 
sian Alliance aimed at Germany. — The Entente 
aimed at Germany's isolation in Europe. — Eng- 
land's secret understanding with Belgium. — Her 
failure to protect Belgium on the outbreak of hos- 
tilities. — English labor opinion on the origin of 
the conflict. — English hypocrisy unmasked. — Eng- 
land's efforts to promote an Anglo-American Al- 
liance. — England's feverish jealousy of Germany. 
— Her naval and military budgets. — How Irish 
good nature was imposed upon at outbreak of 
hostilities. — The cry of "Avenge Catholic Bel- 



Contents 15 

gium" no longer effective. — How Germany stood 
with Austria. — What Ireland may learn from 
study of the situation. 

CHAPTER XVIII 

HOPES AND FEAES 274 

Why England's difficulty is Ireland's opportunity. 
— The old gospel of Irish nationalism. — Ireland's 
hour of destiny at hand. — ^What the tragic decay 
of her people and the neglect of her country should 
teach Ireland. — The patriot Davitt's views on 
Freedom. — The cardinal doctrine of Irish nation- 
ality. — The teachings and sacrifices of the Young 
Irelanders. — The Irish without arms. — How fail- 
ure may prove ultimately a triumph. 

CHAPTER XIX 

HOME EXILE UNDEE THE SPOT LIGHTS 288 

The Home Rule Act as it is on the statute books. 
— Its clauses examined, — The worthlessness of the 
measure. — The helplessness of the proposed Irish 
Parliament. — How the English Parliament will re- 
main supreme. — Why the Act will break down 
and should be rejected. — The sole hope of saving 
a race lies in separation from England. 

CONCLUSION 
CONCLUSION' 306 

The heart of the people beats true. — Are they 
to suffer and die in order that Catholic Ireland 
be made the Avenger for Catholic Belgium? — The 
red herring across the trail. — ^When they cannot 
save themselves, why try to save Belgium or Ser- 
bia? — The failure at Antwerp. — The neutrality 
of Greece violated by England. — No industrial 
Ireland while England rules. — Will Ireland, in 
this crisis, produce a chieftain who will lead the 
clans ? 



INTRODUCTION 

BY DB. THOMAS ADDIS EMMET 

At the request of my friend, the author, I have 
undertaken to aid his work by an introduction. 
He has fully accomplished his purpose, and 
needs no aid. Yet sometimes two handles se- 
cure a better grasp. 

The industries of Ireland of the past are a 
subject to which I have given much time and 
study ; not entirely from what others have seen, 
but from my own personal observation among 
the people, as early as 1871, along the west coast, 
where I had no other conveyance but my own 
footsteps to aid me. I had long been trained 
in my profession as a specialist to be a close 
observer, and I possessed a fair knowledge of 
physics and of practical farming, as followed 
in Virginia at the time of my reaching manhood. 

In accord with my judgment, I will first con- 
sider Ireland's political relations with England, 
as on these must rest every prospect for Ire- 
land's future. England's title to Irish soil can 

17 



18 Introduction 

claim no better right than that existing orig- 
inally in her connection with all lands — the gain 
from might, no more nor less than that held by 
a highway robber. Rome of old, with France 
and all other nations of later date in their colo- 
nization, with the exception of England, con- 
nected with the capture every effort to concili- 
ate, and to establish the hope that the change 
would prove one of advantage. 

With this treatment, Rome's title after every 
conquest was soon gained with the consent and 
pride of the newly-made Roman Citizen, who 
generally felt more honored by the right gained 
than that held by the proudest resident in the 
city of Rome itself. 

England, represented by her '* Governing 
Classes," the worthy descendants of their Nor- 
man progenitors, with their greed for gain, as 
known the world over, with the power, became 
at once the unscrupulous violator of every com- 
mand in the Decalogue, as is proven by any 
knowledge of Irish history. 

John Bull has been the octopus and land- 
grabber of the world, to whom truth has ever 
been unknown as an obligation, save from ne- 



Introduction 19 

cessity. He has been the murderous extermi- 
nator and cowardly bully of all weaker than 
himself, as is taught by Irish history. Every 
fibre in his construction is but an indicator of 
his ill-gotten gain. Two-thirds of the English 
people have nothing in common with *^The Gov- 
erning Class," and are but mere sojourners in 
their own land. With these I have nothing but 
the kindest feeling, as I came of the same stock, 
having among them today relatives and many 
friends. With John Bull we are dealing, but, 
with all the necessary facts in the possession of 
the writer, we will leave him to the well-de- 
served contempt of everyone outside of his own 
bounds, and to his sympathizers in this country 
and elsewhere, of the same stock, whose inter- 
ests he has always cared for, the only thing 
known to his credit. 

lEELAND *S INDUSTRIES OP OLD 

Elsewhere* I have written : * * The charge has 

been made frequently, and the evidence has 

never been wanting to show, that England, 

from the beginning even to our day, has fol- 

*"Ireland Under English Rule." New York : Putnam's Sons. 
Second Edition. 



20 Introduction 

lowed a settled purpose in her determination 
that the Irish people and Ireland should never 
prosper. ' ' 

As England keeps the account called the taxes 
and doles out to Ireland, from time to time, only 
what is absolutely necessary for special pur- 
poses, Ireland can obtain no redress under her 
domination. Few, even among the Irish people, 
after an interval of more than thirty years, can 
have any knowledge of this injustice; on the 
contrary, it is being constantly trumpeted 
abroad that England, for some time, has 
made every effort to retrieve the past. It is 
stated how many millions she has generously 
advanced for the purchase of land for the Irish 
people, on all of which she received good inter- 
est, notwithstanding it is Irish money and 
eventually she receives the principal. It is also 
claimed she pays Ireland's portion of the pen- 
sions for old people among the poor. In reply, 
I can state the fact, which cannot be truthfully 
denied, that in not one single instance has Eng- 
land ever paid one penny of her own money for 
Ireland's benefit, not even for charity. 

In the life of the late Colonel Edward Saun- 



Introduction 21 

derson, a conspicuous Orangeman and Member 
of Parliament from Ulster, a quotation is here 
taken from one of his speeches: **When Eng- 
lishmen set to work to wipe the tear out of Ire- 
land's eye, they always buy the pocket handker- 
chief at Ireland's expense.'' 

There exists no future for Ireland but in- 
creasing tuberculosis and death from starvation 
for her people, or an absolute and speedy sepa- 
ration from England. There was no important 
industry which the Irish people have not fully 
developed, and after reaching the fullest de- 
gree of success, England, by aid of her Parlia- 
ment, has not ruthlessly destroyed. It has been 
less than one hundred and fifty years since Ire- 
land made the hats, boots, shoes and all goods 
from leather, which were unequalled in quality 
elsewhere, and woolen ware and linen of every 
description ; the monopoly of the latter Holland 
held for centuries. Ireland finally made the 
best cut glass in the world, and considerable of 
the best china. For years she was the book and 
music publishing center, while her inks of every 
description were rated the best, and even the 
sand, then used in place of the blotting paper 



22 Introduction 

of the present day, could not be found else- 
where as good. London and Paris were de- 
pendent on the workmen of Dublin for the mak- 
ing of the best jewelry; also copper and steel 
engraving, watch seal making and engraving. 
Ireland had the music printing of the world; 
also she regulated the opera for Continental 
Europe, for it was rendered nowhere better 
than in Dublin. The judgment of a Dublin audi- 
ence determined the career of many an actor or 
opera singer. England finally, from jealousy 
and greed, destroyed every industry in Ireland. 
The Irish workmen were driven out of Ireland 
for want of occupation, and the greater part 
emigrated and settled in Paris, where they es- 
tablished every industry for which France is 
now noted. The natural resources of Ireland 
are inexhaustible ; for no other land of the same 
extent has the Creator done so much and man 
so little. 

The possible development of industries in 
Ireland should not be considered before the 
mighty power to be obtained from Ireland's 
water-power is appreciated. From the climate 
in Ireland, and the lay of the land, every stream 



Introduction 23 

is kept full to the overflowing as it rushes on its 
way to the ocean over nature 's obstacles placed 
at every turn. The power thus generated can- 
not be found to the same extent in any other 
country. The coal deposits of Ireland exist to an 
unknown extent, and if means existed for their 
transportation they would be far more valuable 
than the English mines, which are now worked 
at too great a depth to be sufficiently profitable, 
or, as in Wales, are being extended to too 
great a distance under the ocean to be much 
longer used. The capitalists who built the Irish 
railways were the owners of the English coal 
mines and had the course of the railroads built 
to pass at the greatest distance from the coal 
and iron deposits in Ireland, while every ob- 
stacle was made by the government to prevent 
any effort being made for their development. 

Since the ^ * Union, * ' the government has laid 
a heavy tax on the use of native coal. This is 
but another instance of broken faith on the part 
of the English Government. By the fifth article 
of the treaty, or the *^Act of the Union," it was 
pledged that coal, salt, hops and other articles 
were to have been free from taxation, yet these 



24 Introduction 

articles have all been taxed since. In violation 
of her pledged honor, it should be stated, every 
other article of this treaty was disregarded by 
England, as is her custom with every obligation 
contracted by her, as the truth seems to be some- 
thing officially unknown unless she is to be the 
gainer. There seems to be an endless variety 
of marbles of every description and color. 
Among them is found a white marble as pure 
as any from Italy, and which is seen nowhere 
else in any northern country. The marble is 
free from the impurity of iron, which, on ex- 
posure to the weather, becomes oxidized and 
soluble, leaving cavities for the reception of rain 
water. This freezes and, on melting, chips off 
the face of the stone, leaving a surface for the 
accumulation of dust, etc., darkening the color 
of the stone, as is shown to have taken place in 
the Vermont marble of the monument to 
Thomas Addis Emmet in St. Paul's Church, 
and in the stone used in the construction of 
Grace Church and other buildings. There ex- 
ists in Ireland the greatest variety of colors of 
clays, as well as the purest white, with kaolin 
and porcelain clays for the making of the finest 



Introduction 25 

quality of pottery and chinaware to be found in 
any part of the world ; also the earths for mak- 
ing bricks and tiles. 

At the Crystal Palace Exhibition held in New 
York in 1850 I recollect seeing a collection of 
Irish building stone of over six hundred differ- 
ent specimens, all of which, it was claimed, were 
of equally good quality. 

Before the close of the seventeenth century 
Ireland had demonstrated the value of her glass 
works, whose production was universally ac- 
cepted as the most beautiful to be obtained any- 
where. This was due to the superior quality of 
certain deposits in different parts of the coun- 
try and to the remarkable richness in the residu- 
ary salts found in the ash from the Irish kelp, 
which, grown on the West Course, where the 
ocean has never been at rest since the Creation, 
is found, from being in constant motion, to be 
of mammoth size. 

It was nearly one hundred years before Eng- 
land was able totally to destroy this industry, 
and she is today dependent on the use of Irish 
kelp and sand for the success of her own glass 
manufactories. She never equaled the Irish 



26 Introduction 

cut glass, as beautiful, it was said, as any ever 
produced in Venice, which in my early days was 
seen in common use throughout the Southern 
States. Ireland ^s woolen industries were never 
equaled, as the wool was remarkably fine. The 
climate on the west coast of Ireland, in County 
Clare and County Kerry, had an effect on the 
quality of the wool which yet exists after so 
long an interval, as the wool of the mature sheep 
in this district is still remarkably fine. 

We may consider Ireland ^s possibilities in- 
definitely and not the slightest doubt can be 
raised as to the success of any industry in Ire- 
land if the development be under favorable cir- 
cumstances. 

When separation from England has been 
gained, there will be created at once a demand 
for good food and proper clothing. We have 
now reached a point where I should, as a medi- 
cal man, place on record my experience in con- 
nection with Ireland from 1871 to 1903. Since 
then my knowledge has been chiefly based upon 
published medical records, and from these I am 
led to believe there has been but little change 
for the better. The people of Ireland have not 



Introduction 27 

been properly fed for over three centuries, but 
the children were better cared for before 
the famine of 1847. Since that time they have 
shared, as a rule, the tea baker's bread diet of 
their elders, and have been fortunate while reg- 
ularity of gain and a sufficiency for moderate 
repletion existed. There was never a famine in 
Ireland but of England's making, to increase 
the gain of her own people, when more than ten 
times the amount of food was being taken out 
of the country than would have saved every in- 
dividual from starvation. The famine of 1847 
was one of profit to her and her people in her 
demand for the pound of flesh. The United 
States Government sent the sloop of war 
*^ Jamestown'' laden to her gunwales with food 
for the starving people of Ireland, yet not a 
particle of this abundance ever reached those in 
want. The cargo was placed by the English 
Government in a warehouse in Cork and rotted, 
as well as many other contributions from the 
charitable of the world. In regard to this. Sir 
Eobert Peel, then the English Premier, stated 
that **the natural course of commerce and trade 
would be deranged" by such a way of 



28 Introduction 

distributing charity. After the English traders 
had gotten possession of every six-pence 
to be obtained, the government yielded 
to public demand and made an advance as if of 
charity on its part, which proved to be Irish 
money, which Ireland had to repay with inter- 
est, notwithstanding the greater part was paid 
out to English clerks, who rendered no efficient 
service by distributing a ticket for a pint of 
meal to a man dying of dysentery, to be ob- 
tained at some claimed depot twenty miles dis- 
tant and the sufferer unable to take twenty 
steps. Most difficult is it for the writer to con- 
fine himself to a consideration of Irish indus- 
tries when there is so much to be considered in 
close connection, and the direct result of Eng- 
land's destruction of these industries from her 
misrule, where a man may live in a half-starved 
condition for a year without being able to earn 
a shilling for a day's work. 

Ireland today contains more persons doomed 
to die from tuberculosis than any other country, 
with many demented and half-witted people, as 
well as many hopelessly insane, when in 1743 
the disease was almost unknown in the country 



Introduction 29 

and the first asylum was built by Dean Swift in 
consequence of his own condition being an indi- 
cation of a coming need. The saddest condition 
of all is the sight of so many blind persons. I 
have myself come upon some out-of-the-way 
nook along the west coast where all seemed to 
be in rags and apparently with no other subsis- 
tence than some kind of seaweed and a coarse 
grass that any other animal than a goat would 
reject. Nearly all were more or less blind, and 
on examining their eyes, I found a condition 
with which I had become familiar as early as 
1850 among the half-starved Irish emigrants 
suffering from ship, or typhus, fever. From the 
low condition of their vitality, due to chronic 
starvation, the clear portion of the eye over the 
pupil would ulcerate, and if they lived long 
enough for it to heal, as the scar was not trans- 
parent, they remained blind for the remainder 
of their lives. 

These details, which would be of little inter- 
est except to the medical man, must be cited to 
show that the first industry to be undertaken in 
Ireland is agriculture. Every portion of the 
country should be planted, under proper in- 



30 Introduction 

struction, to gain the largest harvest, not to feed 
England, but to be retained with the utmost vig- 
ilance for home consumption. No price should 
tempt the people to part with the food within 
their reach, to be exported as usual. Pay no 
debts with it as of old, and resist every attempt 
made to seize it. The first struggle for indepen- 
dence must be made on this issue, and will 
simply be one of life or death. With this war 
and the great demand for food, Ireland, without 
this precaution, is doomed to suffer from a fam- 
ine which may easily exterminate the race. At 
no time has the future welfare of Ireland been 
in greater danger than at the present. 




,^^.p^..^.^jll<^^. 




New Yobk, December 1, 1915. 



The Author is deeply sensible of the appreciation and en- 
dorsement of Dr. Thomas Addis Emmet, who by common con- 
sent is the greatest living authority as a writer of modern 
Irish history, and whose labors and sacrifices have endeared 
him to all who wish for the preservation of the Celtic race. 



PREFACE 

There are two Chinese proverbs which are 
relevant to the spirit in which the following 
chapters are written: 

There's no rock of empire man shall make, 
But tooth and tide of time shall shake. 

Chang Jo Hue (Chinese), A. D. 800. 

The truths that we least wish to hear are those 
which it is most to our advantage to know. — Old Chi- 
nese Proverb. 

England has long held the ear of the world. 
As part of her commercial policy she has suc- 
cessfully exploited the prevailing belief that 
Ireland, as a commercial or industrialized na- 
tion, is impossible. This little work will prove 
a revelation to many practical men who have 
doubted the existence of the really wonderful 
rich resources of a land which offers the great- 
est commercial possibilities for development in 
Europe because, through centuries of neglect, 
her resources are almost untouched and easy 
of access. Were Ireland a free and independent 
nation, withdrawn from the control of England, 
with Germany as her friend and potential ally, 

31 



32 Preface 

deserving the fast friendship of the United 
States, the Emerald Isle would carve out her 
destinies and become one of the most important 
small states of the world. As long as Ireland 
remains a West British colony used for sup- 
plying food and animals to feed the English 
factory workers — and England never intends to 
let her be anything else — just so long will Erin 
remain the most backward and poorest country 
on the continent. 

Germany is the most vigorous and healthiest 
of the great nations and the neutral world dis- 
covers her latent strength at the same moment 
when the inherent weaknesses of the British 
Empire, despite vaster wealth and numbers, are 
pitilessly exposed to a wondering world. 

The historic wrongs of Ireland find little 
space in this volume. They are too well known 
to be described at this time. Ireland is the natu- 
ral strategic entrance to Europe while her chil- 
dren tonight are at the parting of the ways. 
There are nearly 20,000,000 of them in various 
lands and only 4,000,000 in Ireland. Their kin 
across the seas, having lived under the sun of 
freedom, have a right to protest against the sac- 



Preface 33 

rifice of the remaining remnants, deceived by 
the representations of the ruthless foe of cen- 
turies. At present Ireland is only food-produc- 
ing and recruiting ground for England. "What 
earthly hope is there for her people as a race 
and a nation until the sun shall have set on the 
British Empire? In this volume are set forth 
the economic reasons why England will never 
permit Ireland to experience industrial and 
commmercial freedom. The reader is asked to 
study the chapter containing the text of the so- 
called Home Rule Bill and see what a wretched 
sham, fraud, and travesty the measure appears 
in the name of self-government and how effec- 
tually the country is estopped from the liberties 
which have made Canada and Australia factors 
in the empire. 

Special attention is invited to the chapters on 
Irish agriculture, manufacture, fuel, water- 
power, fisheries, reclamation, transit facilities, 
and various neglected resources. They have 
been prepared with great care and the facts 
and data contained therein are absolutely cor- 
rect and will, therefore, stand an X^ray test, as 
the author subjected his data to the two best- 



34 Preface 

known authorities on the special subjects men- 
tioned, in Dublin and New York, for examina- 
tion and approval. 

TkE Author. 

New York, December lo, 1915. 



CHAPTER I 

THE GAELIC BENAISSANCE 

War-battered dogs are we, 
Fighters in every clime, 
Fillers of trench and of grave, 
Mockers, bemocked by Time; 
War-dogs, hungry and grey, 
Gnawing a naked bone. 
Fighting in every clime 
Every cause but our own. 

The object of the Gaelic Renaissance is to make 
Ireland Irish and arrest the progress of mak- 
ing her merely a West British province. The 
saving of the national spirit is a labor of love 
for true Celts, who wish to preserve the native 
language, civilization, music, art and history. 
The national character is not to be preserved 
unless the country prospers in a material sense. 
The nation must create a sufficient income to 
maintain high standards of living, otherwise 
the aspirations of a race are sunk in the woes 
of the severe struggle for existence. This war 
has brought to mankind the largest amount of 
human sufering the world has known. We 

35 



36 What Could Germany Do For Ireland? 

have been told for decades that race divisions 
and racial hatreds were dying out ; that the love 
of country was weakening, as compared with 
the love of mankind; this was the age of 
brotherhood and the triumph of international 
comity and spirit ; there could be no great war 
of races or combinations of races ; the old align- 
ments had perished. There was the great army 
of Socialists, a wide-world party, powerful in 
Parliaments and Cabinets, with the symbol of 
the blood of man and the love of all peoples be- 
fore the world. They would never kill their 
brothers in battle. There were Christianity and 
Socialism united to prevent war, and today 
three millions of Socialists are at grips, engaged 
in the death struggle. They were Germans 
first, Frenchmen first, Englishmen first, Aus- 
trians first — Socialists last. The cry of national 
defense takes the place, in the grim, hideous 
world of today, of the lost call that all men are 
brothers. Ireland should stand alone for Ire- 
land, and save the submerging of the Celtic 
race. This is not Ireland's war. Her 
strength is in living, in saving her youth and 
preserving the race from death — live to create 



The Gaelic Renaissance 37 

a social order which will lessen the hardships 
of existence, and learn that prosperity is the 
only sure test of the success of national experi- 
ments. The co-operation of new manufactur- 
ing industries with improved agriculture will 
increase wages and population. Then Ireland 
will not depend on the English market. She 
will consume most of her cattle, butter, poultry 
and other products. Her people may wear 
Irish-made clothes, live in houses made of Irish 
cement, eat food preserved in Ireland, wear 
Irish shoes, clothes, use Irish furniture, clocks, 
watches, shirts and gowns, if she prefers her 
own wares to others. This is what the material 
development of Ireland would mean if she was 
really an important country in Europe. The 
Irish trade-mark, * * Made in Ireland, ' ' would be 
seen often outside of Ireland. Labor would be 
organized into great productive trades, instead 
of being dominated, in these miserable times, by 
the distillers and other selfish interests. The 
slums of the capital, wretched in the extreme, 
would be cleared away. Trade and vocational 
schools would occupy the sites of the distilleries. 
Industrial villages, organized on co-operative 



38 What Could Germany Do For Ireland? 

lines, copied from Germany, would take the 
place of the gloomy, cheerless Irish villages that 
give us the heartache to see them. The pitiful 
cry of wretched Connemara may be answered, 
her rich resources developed, and her bogs 
drained and turned into fruitful soil. The 
ideals of freedom have inspired the men and 
women of all ages. If the industrial and eco- 
nomic system of Germany has brought indus- 
trial freedom and prosperity to all her states, 
the young men of Ireland can afford to borrow 
it and profit by her example. And her friends 
in other lands can afford to inquire into the 
causes which have made Ireland the weakest 
country on the continent and to embrace with 
courage and fearlessness the spirit and prin- 
ciples and the practical aid of a civilized state, 
the foremost in modern economic history. 



CHAPTER II 

IRELAND AT THE CROSSROADS 

The nations have fallen and thou art still young, 
Thy sun is just rising when others have set, 

And though slavery's cloud o'er thy morning has 
hung, 
The full moon of freedom shall beam on thee yet. 

Striking heavy blows at the heart of British 
empire in the East, while English statesmen 
tremble, the triumphant German organization 
is marching over the world ^s great trading 
ronte from Hamburg to Bagdad, from Berlin 
to Constantinople. The juncture effected of 
the German-Austrian forces with the Bul- 
garians eliminates Serbia and makes clear the 
road for the Turks on their march to Egypt. 
All the world knows at last of the disastrous 
failures and defeat at the Dardanelles, despite 
the false dispatches of six months from the 
Straits. The guns of von Mackensen boomed 
across the Danube and soon their reverbera- 
tions will be heard over the Suez Canal and echo 
through India, the seats of British world power. 

39 



40 What Could Germany Do For Ireland? 

Let none mistake the significance of the present 
spectacle of consternation in England. Eecall 
your schoolboy histories and remember that the 
power which ruled Egypt and Asia Minor is al- 
ways the empire that has ruled the Old World. 
Every conqueror in history, from Alexander 
the Great down to Napoleon, has believed that 
the keys of the world are there. The torch that 
fired the Balkan powder magazine may destroy 
the Eastern Empire of England. 

The power of the Persian dynasty rested on 
the fate of Egypt, and Alexander the Great 
ruled the world when he took Egypt from the 
Persians, 332 B. C. Alexandria as a Greek capi- 
tal was the center of Grecian world power and 
civilization. Then, 400 years later, the Roman 
victories at Actium settled the fate of Egypt for 
centuries, while the Roman empire ruled the 
world. The eagles of Napoleon held Egypt in 
the early part of his reign, and then arrived 
England, who effected the final conquest of 
Egypt when Alexandria was bombarded in 
1882. 

British diplomacy has failed in the Orient in 
1915 where it succeeded and saved the Empire 



Ireland at the Crossroads 41 

from Napoleon in 1798. When Napoleon sailed 
from Toulon that year to conquer Egypt he 
realized that he would win battles there but 
could not hold the country without the aid of 
Turkey. The mamelukes of Egypt were at war 
with Turkey and Napoleon believed by conquer- 
ing the common enemy that he would receive 
the support of Turkey. Threatened in the East, 
the wily English diplomats won the heir of the 
Prophet to their side and the Christians formed 
an alliance with the Infidels which defeated Na- 
poleon. In the light of history the hypocritical 
protest from London of the unholy Germanic- 
Turk alliance is very amusing. The situation 
of 1798 is reversed and the British Empire is 
at the mercy of Turkey as the French were un- 
der Napoleon. His armies perished on the 
sands of the desert in a manner not wholly dis- 
similar to the way that the soldiers of France 
and England are perishing in 1915. 

With trained officers, there are no finer sol- 
diers in the world than the Turks. They have 
no fear of death and are noted for endurance. 
Only a small part of their available fighting 
men have been engaged at the Dardanelles, the 



42 What Could Germany Do For Ireland? 

Caucasus or in Mesopotamia for lack of guns 
and munitions. All men over 16 must go to 
war and military authorities say they will have 
1,500,000 new soldiers ready as soon as the mu- 
nitions and food supplies are received. All 
this spells tragedy for British hopes in the 
Eastern campaign and when the news filters 
through press-censored Ireland, it is bound to 
infect public opinion so as to create deep in- 
terest in the problem of what will happen to 
the Emerald Isle in the event of England losing 
the war. 

This war has taught many thoughtful Ameri- 
cans the danger and menace of British rule of 
the sea. They realize that if the United States 
was at war with Japan, or any other ally of 
England, American trade and commerce on the 
ocean could be destroyed as fully as English 
domination of the ocean has shut off the over- 
seas trade of the German Empire. There never 
was the slightest danger that Germany would 
declare war on the United States. We are 
nearly 4,000 miles away and a vast expanse of 
water separates the two countries, forming a 
natural barrier, making the transportation of 



Ireland at the Crossroads 43 

a great army well-nigli impossible directed 
against a vast country with unlimited resources. 
The Wilson administration very wisely de- 
mands a government-controlled merchant ma- 
rine to insure the development and protection 
of American trade. And there is a sentiment, 
partly genuine, partly accelerated, for a large 
navy to protect American commerce. "With a 
great merchant marine flying the flag of the 
United States also trading with Ireland, and 
with the deep friendship of Germany, the young 
industries of Ireland could be improved, and 
markets found for her wares. Her strategic 
shipping position gives her a marked advantage 
which has often been pointed out elsewhere. 
England is a relentless enemy where her com- 
mercial supremacy is threatened. Whatever 
the outcome of the war, her ambitious project is 
to establish by treaty with the United States an 
offensive and defensive alliance of all English- 
speaking people in the world. She would cer- 
tainly be the predominant partner, with the aid 
of her rich colonies, their immense wealth and 
vast population. Thus she would feel immune 
from attack at the hands of Germany or other 



44 What Could Germany Do For Ireland? 

enemies. Germany must control Europe from 
the Baltic Sea to the Mediterranean Sea, from 
Riga to Constantinople. She must, if possible, 
and at any hazard, take over Egypt and the 
Suez Canal and aim to split up India, the cor- 
ner-stones of the British Empire. France, brave 
and intrepid, but slowly bleeding to death, must 
be left inviolate as to territory if she separates 
from Russia, which mad alliance has nearly ef- 
fected her ruination. Germany will weaken the 
Russian autocratic empire, a constant menace 
to modern civilization and progress in its vast 
numbers, and take over Courland and leave Po- 
land and her 15,000,000 of people to set up an 
autonomous and independent state under the 
protection of Austro-Germany — a buffer state 
between the Teuton and Slav empires, always 
of infinite advantage to the future of the Teu- 
tonic forces. 

Having thus insured her position of suprem- 
acy in the East, the terms of peace should fur- 
nish her with the only guarantee of para- 
mountcy in the West which depends on the com- 
plete separation of Ireland from England and 
the creation of a new Irish National Govern- 



Ireland at the Crossroads 45 

ment formed to develop the resources of the 
island and assured of an alliance with Germany 
and her allies and the good will and friendship 
of the United States. The stronger position 
that an independent Ireland occupies in the 
Western world the more potent ally she be- 
comes. A populous, powerful Ireland guarding 
the entrance to Europe would for a long time 
guarantee that England would not regain mas- 
tery of the world. A strong Irish nation, reso- 
lute in national spirit and character, is essential 
to Germany in successfully terminating the war ; 
otherwise she has failed to close the main door 
on her enemies in the West. Germany could 
well afford as an insurance of future peace 
to guarantee Irish bonds and securities for the 
development of the island, issued on the good 
faith and property of the people. The British 
and French financing of Belgium brought the 
latter country into the war against Germany, 
while the billions of French money invested in 
Russia brought that country to the side of 
France. We know that Bulgaria was the key to 
the Balkan States and that she was financed by 
Germany. Likewise, Turkey was financed and 



46 What Could Germany Do For Ireland? 

officered by Germany and the result of her grati- 
tude is seen in the frightful disasters that have 
overtaken the British armies at the Dardanelles. 

It is true that Ireland is the poorest country 
in Europe, but Germany was a poor country up 
to 1871, yet in 40 years she has shown the world 
what economic development has done for a poor 
people by revolutionizing methods of produc- 
tion and distribution of commodities so that the 
surplus of the income of the people exceeds 
their consumption ; so that the part of the world 
disposed to be fair acknowledges her suprem- 
acy in solving the great problems of human 
existence. 

On October 22, 1915, King George of Eng- 
land appealed to his subjects in these words : 

War has been declared in order that another may 
not inherit the free empire which my ancestors have 
built. The end is not in sight. More men, and yet 
more men, are wanted to keep my armies in the field 
and through them to secure victory. 

Sensible Celts who would preserve their race 
must acknowledge that, having no part of a 
**free empire'' to lose, their ancestors having 
been enslaved and their country impoverished 



Ireland at the Crossroads 47 

and its institutions destroyed by ruthless con- 
querors, the plain duty of the people of Ireland 
is to live and defend their own country. There 
is not a single page in the last 700 years of 
Erin's melancholy history which can possibly 
inspire a true Celt to give up his life to help 
save the tottering government of the persecu- 
tors and oppressors of his land. We are in- 
formed by the Belfast Daily News* and the 
London Times that, in the first fifteen months 
of the war, not more than 30,000 recruits have 
been secured in Ireland, outside of Orange and 
Tory recruits, and that at the present time (De- 
cember, 1915) scarcely any real Nationalist vol- 
unteers are going to the front. This is as it 
should be always if the remnants of the race are 
to be saved. The blood of the poor Connaught 
Rangers and the unfortunate Dublin Fusilliers 
lies on the heads of the Irish party recruiting 



*"In rural Ireland, where the Hibernians are the ruling 
power, the recruiting sergeant appeals in vain. He cannot 
get recruits amongst the Hibernians, and the few Unionists 
have already gone or have been killed in battle. The West 
and the South are disloyal. Even the 5th Battalion Connaught 
Rangers contains few Nationalists. Looking over casualty 
lists, we find many English in "Irish" regiments. That is 
how the Home Rulers are fighting for the glory of the 
Empire." — Belfast Daily News, October 14, 1915. 



48 What Could Germany Do For Ireland? 

agents who lured those lads to the burnmg 
sands of the desert in the ill-starred and fatal 
Dardanelles campaign and the day will come 
when the mothers of Ireland will voice this sen- 
timent. With the British casualty list running 
into thousands daily and the most terrific 
battles yet to come, the wise friends of Irish na- 
tionality at home and abroad must see in this 
fearful casualty rate the vital necessity of sav- 
ing Ireland for her future greatness among the 
nations of the earth. Her youth preserved and 
the young men and v/ealth of England gone, 
there will be left a virile people better able, 
through the exhaustion of England, to cope with 
their enemies in art, business and industries. 
If the Teutonic victories shall recast the map 
of Europe, as now seems inevitable, and Ire- 
land succeeds in taking a place once more 
among the nations, then it is vital to her na- 
tional welfare that her young men avoid enroll- 
ing in the British army. They should remain 
at home preparing to build up a strong and free 
Ireland, resisting conscription to the bitter end. 
These views are upheld by practically all of the 
Irish- American societies and newspapers. And 



Ireland at the Crossroads 49 

those who have been prejudiced against Ger- 
many by a studied campaign of false news and 
slanderous reports might well be reminded of 
the powerful situation of the Germanic forces 
in the enemy's territory and to court the friend- 
ship rather than the hostility of the strongest 
nation in Europe. 

The Associated Press, in a dispatch dated 
Dublin, October 1, 1915, notes : 

Ireland is now at work on a large scale in the manu- 
facture of munitions of war. The work is now well 
in hand and no less than one hundred and seventy 
firms in Ireland are engaged in it. Large orders have 
been placed in Dublin, and one firm has got an order 
for $100,000, a small figure on the general scale of 
this war but a good deal of money for a city where 
employment is scarce and industry backward. Ire- 
land never has in the past secured a fair share of 
government expenditure. Ireland's chief industry is, 
and must remain, agriculture, and one of the most 
indispensable of war munitions is food. A vigorous 
campaign is to be waged under government auspices 
to increase the output of food products in Ireland. 
But farmers' sons are not enlisting in the army. 

The only ray of hope for Ireland lies in the 
last sentence ; all the rest is a disgraceful reve- 
lation to the world of the depths of the economic 
degradation to which the country has fallen 
after centuries of English government. They 



50 What Could Germany Do For Ireland? 

are to be given industries only in the shape of 
shell factories to kill a people who never harmed 
them for the benefit of a country which has 
made their land the most desolate, miserable 
and backward country in Europe. The govern- 
ment is to wage a campaign for the output of 
food products in Ireland at last, but only in 
order that the army at home and abroad may be 
fed. 

A curious irony of fate that England, the de- 
stroyer of Irish industries, through the neces- 
sities of war, should fall back on neglected Ire- 
land for war supplies, and they should be the 
first industries developed since the British 
union with Ireland in 1801 ! We are glad to have 
this historic admiission through the valuable 
channels of the news service on w^hich Ameri- 
cans rely for information. Elsewhere the 
writer shows why England will never grant in- 
dustrial freedom to Ireland and why the inter- 
ests of Germany after the war demand the free- 
dom of Ireland and her separation from Eng- 
land, and why Ireland then, and then only, can 
be made a powerful and prosperous nation. It 
will be seen why England intends always to 



Ireland at the Crossroads 51 

keep Ireland as a grazing and farming island, 
using the sparse population to feed her factory- 
workers. A country dependent on farming and 
without diversified industries cannot hope to be 
important or prosperous as a nation. There 
must be manufactures and commerce to fur- 
nish life-blood for a nation. The island, to have 
a position in the world, must have capital to de- 
velop her great natural resources, the listing 
and recital of which will amaze the fair reader 
who has hitherto relied on wrong information. 
Every statement of fact and figures in this book 
has been prepared with the most careful atten- 
tion, and the information is reliable and the 
figures claimed to be accurate. The writer 
pleads for a study of a possible social and po- 
litical organization in a country bereft of people 
and industries, and its best blood scattered for 
half a century over most parts of the world. 
We plead for the saving of the remnants of a 
race through the outcome of this greatest and 
most fearful of wars of races. We believe the 
star of the British Empire is setting, never to 
rise again in the firmament with the same bril- 
liancy. Her vast possessions and enormousi 



52 What Could Germany Do For Ireland? 

wealth will not save her from taking second or 
third place in the affairs of nations. The last 
year and a half has exposed her impotency and 
inefficiency to the world and no amount of head- 
lines can conceal the disasters that have over- 
taken her armed forces in all theatres of war. 
On the advice of Sir Edward Grey, her For- 
eign Minister, England declared war on Ger- 
many, and according to the London Daily Mail 
of October 15 : 

Sir Edward Grey made a statement in the House 
of Commons yesterday on the course of diplomacy in 
the Balkans. He said in effect: "I could have won 
a diplomatic victory in the Balkans only if our armies 
had had a victory to help me. The Germans have vic- 
tories and that gave success to her diplomats who 
were working for a Balkan war.'* 

Friends of the cause of Irish Nationality are 
asked not only to consider the past and present 
economic situation of Ireland, but the depths of 
the abyss into which she will have fallen in the 
event of British final collapse and if fate should 
ordain that she be not separated from the Eng^ 
lish connection. Hence the necessity for fac- 
ing facts and studying the German social or- 
ganization, its ramifications, unity, solidarity, 



Ireland at the Crossroads 53 

business methods, and how they may be brought 
into intimate relation with the people of Ire- 
land in the event of Germany replacing Eng- 
land as the dominant European power. 



CHAPTER III 

lEISH HOPES IN GEKMANY OR ENGLAND 

Every attempt to govern Ireland has been from an 
English standpoint, and as if for the benefit of Eng- 
lishmen alone. — Dr. Thomas Addis Emmet. 

One thing seems certain at this writing — Ger- 
many will not lose the war and will either 
triumph or force a peace which may recast the 
map of Europe and, perhaps, Asia. She is 
fighting everywhere in the enemy's territory, 
always on the offensive, occupying and living 
off of 400,000 square miles of the best lands of 
her opponents. Her eagles are flying victori- 
ously over several capitals. She is conducting 
the war at one-fourth the cost to her enemies, 
and her mobilization of industry, agriculture 
and science at home is truly as wonderful as her 
military achievements. 

The news of the unparalleled German suc- 
cesses is slowly filtering through to press-cen- 
sored Ireland, so that even the peasants now 
distrust all English news, and scarcely a hand- 
ful of recruits can be obtained along the west 

54 



Irish Hopes in Germany or England 55 

coast of Ireland. There is much official uneasi- 
ness over the escape of German prisoners from 
military prisons in Ireland, abetted by the 
growing numbers of German sympathizers. 

When the writer was in England and Ireland 
at the opening of the war, the English really be- 
lieved that the Eussians were to take Berlin in- 
side of three or four months. Colonel Johnston, 
His Majesty's recruiting officer at Enniskillen, 
County Fermanagh, told the writer in Septem- 
ber of 1914 that, in his judgment, the Russians 
would have their Christmas dinner at Berlin. 

Poland and Ireland — ^Warsaw and Dublin — 
two countries and two capitals, linked together 
in all Irish historic thoughts of what might have 
been, so much alike in their history, religion, 
genius, sufferings and monuments. In no place 
outside of Poland will her fate or destiny, from 
now on, be watched more anxiously than among 
the students of Irish history and literature and 
the friends of Irish freedom. 

Early in the present year we said : 

The rapidity and sureness with which the German 
armies drove the Russians from Eastern Prussia will 
mean the taking of Warsaw. With the support of the 
Austrians, it is certain that Russia not only will be 



56 What Could Germany Do For Ireland? 

utterly unable to reach Berlin, but cannot hope to 
succeed in an invasion of (jermany. In railway com- 
munications and commissaries' supplies the Russians 
are inferior and unable to cope with the superior Ger- 
man methods. These superior preparations, com- 
bining unexampled qualities of skill and efficiency, 
offset the vast hordes of Russians; brains, not num- 
bers, will win. 

The writer further said : 

England is bluffing the world but will be found out 
before the end of the war, when events will determine 
whether Russia or England is running the closest race 
for the first prize as the most inefficient unit in the 
war, aside from her wealth. 

Most of the world thinks only of the power 
of money, and has taken it for granted that 
England would buy her way to victory through 
alliances and promises of territory, and that 
the apparently unlimited power of British gold 
and her command of the seas would soon extin- 
guish Germany. As the British Empire gar- 
ners its wealth from three-fourths of the world, 
twelve hundred million dollars of it thus early 
have been poured on American shores for muni- 
tions of war, thus hardening and corrupting 
millions of our people. Yet this will not avail. 
The war has cost Russia $5,000,000,000, com- 



Irish Hopes in Germany or England 57 

pleting, if continued, the financial ruin of 
France and England, while the whole world is 
witness to the Eussian collapse. Despite the 
pretended scoffing of the submarines, they have 
destroyed ships and cargoes to the value of 
more than a billion dollars. 

It is time for Ireland to take stock, face the 
world of the future, a new world and map of 
nations, and see where she is coming out. One 
of our most popular ballads contains the lines : 

I met with Napper Tandy, 
And he took me by the hand 
And said how is poor old Ireland, 
And how does she stand ? 

HOW DOES IRELAND STAND? 

We know in America that the overwhelming 
majority of men and women who have ever 
taken any interest in the Irish National cause 
strongly sympathize with Germany as against 
England. They are not unfriendly to France 
or Belgium, and they would be more nearly 
unanimous if the outcome of the struggle was 
confined to England and Germany. The pic- 
ture of Belgium has had to be painted and re- 
painted many times to keep the eye arrested of 



58 What Could Germany Do For Ireland? 

even those Irish- Americans who profess to sup- 
port England as the belated defender of small 
nations. With one exception, the weekly news- 
papers in the United States which make a spe- 
cialty of Irish news are supporting the German 
cause as against the British. The largest so- 
ciety, the Ancient Order of Hibernians of Amer- 
ica, with 200,000 members, has steadfastly op- 
posed Mr. Redmond ^s recruiting campaign. 
Not a single public meeting has been held in the 
United States favorable to Mr. Redmond or his 
recruiting policy since the outbreak of the war. 
Men who still cling to his organization on this 
side, the United Irish League, say they are 
sending no money across this year. The revolu- 
tionary societies show many signs of strength 
and have the support of several newspapers. 
With one or two notable exceptions, the many 
Catholic newspapers of the United States waste 
few words in favor of the position of the Brit- 
ish government in this war. At first their edi- 
tors were carried away by sympathy for Bel- 
gium, but as they have come to realize that war 
was declared on Germany by England, osten- 
sibly to save Belgium, actually to destroy Ger- 



Irish Hopes in Germany or England 59 

many as an economic factor in world produc- 
tion and distribution of commodities, they have 
mostly changed their opinions and sympathies. 
And their opinion is not likely to be altered by 
Mr. Redmond's refusal to heed the appeal for 
peace made by the Bishop of Limerick, in the 
name of His Holiness, Pope Benedict. This 
disregard of the Papal appeal, in the name of 
Christianity and humanity, greatly shocked 
very many Catholics, for the essence of the Red- 
mond answer is that Irish Catholic blood must 
avenge Belgium Catholic blood. The writer has 
received close to 1,200 letters from the Catholic 
clergy in the United States alone, and from 
many Protestant ministers, endorsing the views 
laid down in his book, '^The King, the Kaiser, 
and Irish Freedom,'' and manifesting the deep- 
est distrust of the British Government. 

Despite the fact that little news is permitted 
to penetrate Ireland, unless printed in a man- 
ner designed to excite hostility to Germany, the 
British army, according to the London Times, 
has not secured more than 40,000 recruits in the 
Nationalist sections of Ireland ; that is, in four- 
fifths of the area of the country. The only 



60 What Could Germany Do For Ireland? 

newspapers permitted to exist are those which 
endorse the government. Prominent citizens 
have been driven out of the country and numer- 
ous arrests have taken place under the Defence 
of the Realm Act. Peasants are arriving at our 
ports in large numbers to escape army service. 
All literature from America is banned which is 
found favorable to the German cause. Free- 
dom of speech and press is denied in all four 
provinces. Many good people are led to believe 
that the Germans are modern Huns and Van- 
dals, merciless barbarians, who, should they 
land on the shores of Ireland, would murder 
defenceless women and children. 

The enormous war patronage of the govern- 
ment is parcelled out among the party poli- 
ticians, and their retainers are billeted among 
the pay-roll men of the government. War sup- 
ply orders tend to debauch people in Ireland, as 
well as in America. Newspapers are further 
subsidized with government advertisements at 
high rates. A standing army of 60,000 troops 
is stationed at Irish barracks. They are sorely 
needed in Flanders and at the Dardanelles, but 
the government dare not take them from Ire- 



Irish Hopes in Germany or England 61 

land, lest revolution follow. There are many 
smoldering embers. Truth penetrates the coun- 
try through many obstacles and a haze of preju- 
dices. The geographical situation of the island 
increases the difficulty of supplying the people 
with honest information. Few Germans have 
lived in Ireland, which renders the maligning of 
that great race the much easier. 

lEISH HOPES IN ENGLAND 

Fearing revolution in Ireland, the govern- 
ment permitted the Irish Home Rule Bill to 
pass Parliament, and the King signed the Act. 
This measure is not to go into effect until after 
the war. Since the passage of the message, the 
government has disintegrated, through war 
failures, and a coalition ministry has been 
formed, with two extremely bitter enemies of 
Irish Nationalism occupying most important 
posts in the new Cabinet. 

Balfour, ^* Bloody Balfour,'' as he is known 
since the cruel coercion days, is at the head of 
the British navy. Balfour announced that Ire- 
land will never have a parliament. England's 
pride and hopes lie in her naval prestige, and 



62 What Could Germany Bo For Ireland? 

it is certain that Balfour will have vast influ- 
ence in estopping the establishment of the Home 
Rule Parliament. Should his work, at the head 
of the Admiralty, be crowned with success, he 
expects to win sufficient seats to secure the re- 
peal of the bill. All laws in a state of suspen- 
sion are in danger of repeal or the rescinding 
of vital enacting clauses. 

Sir Edward Carson, the malignant Ulster 
Orangeman, was made Attorney-General of the 
Crown. Carson led the organization of the 
Ulster Volunteers, secured a fund from the 
landlords to arm them, and incited a civil war 
in Ireland which threatened bloodshed, that was 
only averted by England ^s declaration of war 
on Germany. He scoffs at the possibility of 
Home Rule, saying that the Ulster loyalists, in 
proportion to the population, have sent six re- 
cruits to the front where the Nationalists have 
sent one. The Ulster Volunteers have obtained 
arms, while the Irish Volunteers have not been 
furnished with arms by the government, despite 
the assurances of Mr. Redmond. 

The Home Rule Act may improve purely lo- 
cal conditions and administrations in Ireland. 



Irish Hopes in Germany or England 63 

The measure will increase taxes and burden the 
country with place-holders. There is not a 
glimmer of hope in it for an industrial revival 
or the return of the commerce destroyed by 
English laws. In fact, the terms of the bill ex- 
pressly prohibit Ireland from having any con- 
trol over foreign trade, quarantine, aliens, navi- 
gation, patents, banks, police, ships or mer- 
chant shipping. Nothing that might chance to 
encourage Ireland to become a competitor of 
England in any industry is permitted. All Eng- 
lish laws governing Ireland are made as the 
first fundamental that Ireland shall supply 
England with part of her food and that Eng- 
land will supply her, in return, with manufac- 
tured goods. If Irish flax furnishes a quality 
of linen which England cannot supply, or Irish 
whiskey or stout does not find an Anglo-Saxon 
substitute, such Irish industries will not be in- 
terfered with. 

When the Germans .-sunk the super-dread- 
nought ** Audacious'^ off Lough Swilly, Done- 
gal, it marked a spot off a naturally great and 
deserted harbor, in a county made one of the 
poorest and most miserable by British rule. 



64 What Could Germany Do For Ireland? 

The conquerors took the land away by force 
from these poor people and drove them into the 
wilds and mountains of Donegal to starve. 
They have been saved from extermination by 
the faith and courage of a tenacious race ; and 
as that gifted son of that county, Seamus 
MacManus, says, he has not found a Donegal 
man in the United States who has any faith in 
British promises. Although one of the largest 
counties in Ireland, scarcely 600 recruits have 
been secured in that county. None of these 
hardy survivors of oppression can find any ex- 
cuse in dying for England. As the Southern 
Cross of Argentina says, speaking for Latin- 
American Celts: 

Ireland would be false to her history and to every 
consideration of honor, good faith and self-interest 
if she sent her children to die on foreign battlefields, 
fighting the battles of the stranger. 

To all true Celts, for all time, England will 
remain the Stranger, 

Prior to the war the regular English army 
recruited around 40,000 men each year. About 
one-fourth of these were obtained in Ireland. 
The London Spectator says that probably nine 



Irish Hopes in Germany or England 65 

out of ten enlisted through hunger and on raw, 
wintry days. Certainly the class of men in Dub- 
lin and other Irish towns who joined the Brit- 
ish army were homeless and penniless, without 
hope of employment, discouraged, and animated 
by the thought of being fed and clothed and 
paid a little in addition. If they had wives, 
mothers or children, the government would pro- 
vide a little for them. The writer has seen 
many soldiers on parade and never such in- 
ferior men, both physically and mentally, pasty 
colored, pipe-stem legged, and ill-fed lads as 
march through the streets of English and Irish 
towns. And this is the body of luckless Irish- 
men whom Premier Asquith and Mr. Eedmond 
style *'the noblest manhood of the nation. '^ 

lEISH HOPES IN GERMANY 

In the first volume of this work (**The King, 
the Kaiser, and Irish Freedom") the writer 
proved the case by official facts and figures of 
the destructive effect of British control of the 
industries and resources of Ireland. In all the 
storms of criticism which the appearance of the 
book evoked in many quarters there is no de- 



66 What Could Germany Do For Ireland? 

niai of the charges in history that England de- 
liberately destroyed Irish commerce and indus- 
tries for the enrichment of English capitalists 
and for the removal of a formidable and dan- 
gerous competitor. Her capitalistic class has 
been taught for centuries that economic and in- 
dustrial pressure makes her, in logic, a natural 
opponent of her neighbor, who must be kept 
weak in order that her more powerful associate 
may continue strong. This is why England is 
always determined to make a truck garden of 
Ireland and farming centre from which the fac- 
tory workers of England shall be fed. Ireland 
is to give the life of her fruitful soil to Eng- 
land, the live animals and raw materials, which 
England pays for in manufactured commodi- 
ties, clothes, shoes, and finished products. She 
develops no Irish harbors for the benefit of Ire- 
land, lest such development might create Irish 
shipping for ports abroad now controlled by 
English trade. 

We have shown how the English Parliament 
enacted laws which ruined the once flourishing 
manufacturing industries of the country. As 
soon as Ireland developed an import and ex- 



Irish Hopes in Germany or England 67 

port trade in certain commodities similar to 
those made in England, repressive legislation 
was ordered to crush the life out of the yonng 
industries. There is no small country in the 
world where the traveler notes so many de- 
serted factory buildings, ruins of mills, decay- 
ing water-wheels, avoided villages and aban- 
doned docks and harbors — a vast trade de- 
stroyed that never will be recovered while Eng- 
lish administration of Ireland lasts. 

I quote from my notes on Sligo, one of the dy- 
ing cities of Ireland, and there are many Sligos 
in that ill-fared and deserted land : 

One afternoon I was in a small boat on Sligo Bay, 
a place visited by few tourists. Scarcely a sail was 
visible in the great harbor provided by nature, ne- 
glected by man. We were rowed up the Garvogue 
River by a very old man to Lough Gill. No lake or 
mountain scenery in Switzerland or Colorado is more 
beautiful. And yet no boat nor hotel nor sign of 
habitation on that lake nor near it. Six miles distant 
was the dying city of Sligo with 10,000 inhabitants, 
old and poor, the remnants of a stricken race. Sligo 
has nothing to show at the end of 900 years but the 
melancholy ruins of a once flourishing town, her aged 
men and women and their rags. Long since the most 
of the stalwart youth departed for foreign shores. In 
the long twilight we saw the Irish Volunteers drilling 
on the green turf, grim and silent. They speak low 
in Sligo, almost like a whisper ; the faces seem to have 



68 What Could Germany Do For Ireland? 

recorded in them the lines of the woes of centuries; 
and in the silence of the day they eye the great har- 
bor, unflecked by the white sails of their childhood, 
and they seem to look across the seas to their children 
in America. There was a day when the cattle ships 
for the Continent stopped at Sligo. When the cattle 
are sold now they must be first shipped on a small 
steamer to Glasgow or Liverpool. The English mid- 
dleman must have his profit. Iron is abundant in 
Sligo, but no captains of industry are there to mine 
it. An Irish- American dredging contractor who stood 
near said that with men and money he could make 
that harbor one of the world's best located shipping 
ports. 

With the map of Europe recast by the war, 
the interests of Germany demand the separa- 
tion from her opponents of all strategic terri- 
tory which will prevent a new alignment of her 
enemies. The Teutonic forces must first crush 
Russia because of her vast numbers and posi- 
tion along the frontier, making a constant 
menace, and that can only be done by absorbing 
the Province of Courland into the German Em- 
pire and by making Poland a free and autono- 
mous state under German protection. Poland 
contains 15,000,000 of people — including War- 
saw, the finest and wealthiest city in Russia — 
and contains the best land of any large territory 
in the Czar's domains. All of this territory is 



Irish Hopes in Germany or England 69 

occupied by the Germans. To make Poland a 
free state will prove to the small states and de- 
mocracies of the earth the justice of Germany's 
claim that she did not enter the war for terri- 
tory or aggrandizement, but for national se- 
curity. 

We now turn to Finland, where, like Ireland, 
the embers of revolution are smouldering. Fin- 
land is in the extreme of Russia, separated from 
Sweden by the Gulf of Bothnia. The area of 
the province is about three times the size of the 
State of New York. The climate is cold and 
harsh, but it contains vast mineral deposits and 
tracts of lumber, with a total foreign commerce 
of $100,000,000. Finland was an independent 
kingdom for eight centuries, was conquered by 
Sweden in the twelfth century, and taken away 
from Sweden by Eussia in 1809. Sweden has 
been the most friendly to Germany of all the 
neutral countries since the war, and undoubt- 
edly is fostering the Finnish revolution. 

The taking away from Eussia of Poland, 
Courland, Eiga and Finland would cut the claws 
of the Eussian bear at many points where they 
are sticking out into the seas. And victory for 



70 What Could Germany Do For Ireland? 

Turkey in the Caucasus region would lose to 
Russian control the Black Sea and the Caspian 
Sea, and revolution might reach across her bor- 
ders to Persia and Turkestan. In the East, 
therefore, if these successes are attained, Ger- 
many would have built up a number of new 
states, hemming Russia in much the same way 
that Germany was ringed around by hostile en- 
emies before the war. Victory in the East 
will open a line from the Baltic Sea to 
the Persian Gulf. In the west, we have 
shown elsewhere that Ireland is the natural 
gateway to Europe from America and the At- 
lantic Ocean, and of unparalleled advantage to 
Germany in her strategic position if made 
friendly to Germany by being separated from 
the British Empire and made a free nation, with 
Germany as her ally and the United States as 
her friend. Our friends at Berlin are giving 
serious consideration to the plan of assisting in 
the liberation of Ireland, thus insuring her fu- 
ture on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean, and 
the guarantees of her friendship have been 
given to the representatives (now in Germany) 
of Ireland as a nation. 



Irish Hopes in Germany or England 71 

The Wyndham Land Act and the Laborers' 
Act have alleviated to a limited extent the con- 
dition of the Irish peasantry by substituting 
modern dwellings on farms for the wretched 
hovels and thatched cabins common in Ireland. 
But the housing of the people in the cities is ne- 
glected by the government. In the proper hous- 
ing of the people, in public hygiene and sanita- 
tion, the system prevailing in Germany, if ap- 
plied to Ireland, would reduce the rate of death 
and sickness, and help to save the many miser- 
able people condemned to a living death in the 
poor tenements of Dublin. The evidence taken 
before the local government board for Ireland 
on the living conditions of the poor in Dublin 
is a frightful reminder of the neglect and misery 
of the Irish capital. The Dublin corporation, in 
providing for artisans' dwellings, has achieved 
good results, but is handicapped for want of 
funds, and so this beneficial work is arrested. 

The 5,322 tenement houses in the city con- 
tain 35,227 rooms and 4,331 cellars or kitchens^ 
and of the rooms 32,851 are occupied and 1,560 
of the cellars are occupied. There are 20,108 
families occupying one-roomed dwellings, 4,402 



72 What Could Germany Do For Ireland? 

families occupying two rooms, 821 families oc- 
cupying three rooms, and 491 occupying four 
rooms. It will thus be seen that 78 per cent, of 
the lettings are one-room lettings. In a special 
report to the Board of Trade, made in the year 
1908, describing the conditions of the working 
classes in the principal industrial towns in the 
United Kingdom, Dublin is singled out as a city 
of one-room tenements, a fact which is fully 
demonstrated by the following table taken from 
Table XIX., Page XV. of Volume VIII. of Cen- 
sus for England and Wales, 1911 : 

NUMBER OF TENEMENTS OF ONE ROOM, OF TWO 

ROOMS, OF THREE ROOMS, OF FOUR ROOMS, 

PER 1,000 TOTAL TENEMENTS IN PRINCIPAL 

CITIES OF UNITED KINGDOM 



w 


















a +* 

p (U 

^ a 
II 




1 
.5 


1 


a 
o 

§ 


o 
o 
a, 

> 

13 


4-> 

o 


i 

H 

a 

Si 




z 


















1 


339 


94 


200 


134 


54 


18 


10 


6 


2 


310 


816 


462 


190 


74 


35 


21 


41 


3 


105 


219 


189 


213 


132 


97 


805 


50 


4 


104 


144 


66 


159 


185 


406 


165 


239 



The average earnings of one-fourth of the 
heads of families living in these tenements were 



Irish Hopes in Germany or England 73 

less than $3.75 per week ; one-third earned from 
$3.75 to $5.00 per week, the balance from $6.00 
to $7.00 per week. 

In Berlin, for every one man in this condi- 
tion there are sixty-four in Dublin, and the num- 
ber of single-room family dwellings in German 
cities is so small as to be negligible. These 
** homes'' of the Irish poor have no closets, and 
are foul, dark and extremely unhealthy. In 
Germany the government has taken in hand the 
building of artisans' dwellings. The writer has 
looked over tenement areas in other cities and 
found the most unsanitary conditions in Dublin. 
Nowhere have I seen so many broken down and 
infirm people trying to live. The earnings do 
not admit of fire except in the severest weather, 
and the shivering, emaciated, poorly fed and 
clothed children wring the heart-strings of the 
visitor. Contrast these abodes with the work- 
ingmen's apartments of dwelling in Germany. 
There we find the art of city planning, 
which is being copied in America, of which 
but little is known in Ireland. The rate 
of growth in German cities is the largest in the 
world. The Irish cities are badly laid out, de- 



74 What Could Germany Do For Ireland? 

f ective in sewerage and sanitation, and there is 
a lack of artistic taste — a general air of '*well, 
it doesn't matter; we have no money for im- 
provements. ' ' 

Thomas A. Edison, our foremost inventor, 
said, on returning from Germany: 

The workingmen of New York City are not housed 
as are those in Berlin. What a contrast to the dread- 
ful tenements which disgrace and deface New York^s 
crowded districts. The workingmen 's dwellings in 
Berlin are not tenements ; they may be better referred 
to as apartment houses, beautifully constructed, per- 
fectly supplied with light and air, safe against fire, 
and made up of large and conveniently arranged 
rooms. 

What place is more dull at night for a 
stranger than an Irish city, where even one may 
not hear an Irish song sung. The music halls 
are small, the seats uncomfortable, the theatres 
dirty, badly ventilated, and the comedians and 
musical sketches mostly imported and sung by 
London cockneys. 

The smallest city in Germany has a public 
music garden for the traveler at night. There 
are municipal and state theatres, good plays 
and wholesome comedy for all classes. The 
Irish, the most witty and humorous race, are 



Irish Hopes in Germany or England 75 

devoid of opportunity for such social amuse- 
ments. Berlin gave $500,000 to a man who had 
put in $1,250,000, on condition that he give a 
certain number of plays for school children, the 
price of admission not to exceed 12%c. The 
result is the elevation of the dramatic and musi- 
cal art among all classes of people. 

Opera is almost a lost art in Ireland, where 
the Golden Harp is the emblem of the race and 
where, in olden days, the melodies immortalized 
by Moore and the songs of her bards and com- 
posers thrilled the Irish world. Her larks now 
sing in other lands. 

WHY GEEMANY IS NOT STAEVING 

The signal failure of the British attempt to 
starve Germany ought to be a lesson that would 
draw on the memory of the children of the Irish 
emigrants wherever found. They should con- 
trast the neglect, and worse, of the British Gov- 
ernment of 1846 with the German Government 
of 1915. 

The Irish famine is the black curse that 
haunts the memories of our old people and 
sends over to America shiploads of weakly peas- 



76 What Could Germany Do For Ireland? 

ant boys from the potato fields of Ireland wlio 
dread joining the British army. We are told we 
have bitter memories and in the light of the fam- 
ine contributions we should forget and forgive 
British misgovernment in Ireland, for there 
may come a better day. We will merely say, 
then, that the government was incompetent to 
prepare for the famine. In 1841 the population 
of Ireland was 8,175,124, and probably close to 
9,000,000 in 1845, all under the ''efficient'^ agri- 
cultural rule of England — nearly dependent on 
one vegetable, the potato. The potato crop of 
America in 1844 suffered from blight, but no 
warning came from the British Government of- 
ficials. The officers dallied, postponed putting 
forth measures of relief, delayed the plans to 
divide the crops, although the crop of the year 
before was a failure, muddling as usual, and in 
July, 1846, the blight fell on Ireland, and the 
most fearful horror that can scourge a people — 
grim, universal starvation — clutched the coun- 
try in its horrible embrace. One-fourth of all 
the people were swept from the country ; a mil- 
lion died of hunger ; a million more expatriated, 
starving, dying in the holds of sailing ships ; the 



Irish Hopes in Germany or England 77 

bones of thousands lay along the reaches of the 
St. Lawrence, the bodies of their children fed 
to the fishes, thrown overboard from the fam- 
ine-fevered ships hurrying away from that 
blighted land. The absentee English landlords 
refused to visit Ireland, although to some of 
them the famine spelled ruin. Relief works or- 
ganized by an inefficient government in London 
came too late — the wretched people were 
doomed. In the late summer of 1846 mourners 
or coffins or shrouds were not to be had 
for the funerals. Horses and carts gathered 
up the dead for interment in **f amine 
pits." 

At the opening of the war we were told thai 
Germany would starve, as Ireland, because the 
blockade would cut off her wheat and food sup- 
ply. No one talks of starving Germany now! 
The government ordered that all bread should 
contain some flour made with potatoes, and 
bread is cheaper in Berlin than in Dublin. 
Every ton of supplies from outside may be cut 
off and Germany will live. She cannot be 
starved by the British blockade, and Ireland 
would not have been destroyed by famine if 



78 What Could Germany Do For Ireland? 

German governmental methods of agriculture 
had been employed. With Germany as an ally 
of Ireland, she would have chemists and scien- 
tists in agriculture to save her from such a fate. 
When the blockade shut Germany off from oil, 
she was able to substitute alcohol extracted 
from the potato for her motors. Her govern- 
ment is too far-sighted to permit her farmers to 
center on any special crop, and no such disasters 
in the fields as have been experienced in Ireland 
could take place in Germany. 

Herbert Spencer defines organization as the 
ability to bring all available knowledge and en- 
ergy to bear upon the problem at hand when 
needed. This peculiar method of mind is a 
German national endowment — the result of 
thorough, patient study. Transfer their 
methods of production to Ireland, and they will 
find a way of doing things well which mil over- 
come both Irish and English neglect. The Ger- 
mans have demonstrated these qualities in 
every branch of administration. On each sub- 
urban lot containing two-thirds of an acre, dur- 
ing the war the owner must grow half an acre 
of potatoes, on which he usually raises 125 



Irish Hopes in Germany or England 79 

bushels. The beautiful rose gardens of Berlin 
were turned into potato farms. Production for 
the needs of the people was not reckoned in 
dollars, but in quality and quantity of starch, 
heat units, proteins, etc. How much does each 
inhabitant need to eat? The feeding of hogs 
and cattle must be reduced to save food for the 
people. All waste land must be cultivated, and 
400,000 Eussian prisoners are draining swamps 
for next year's crops. All this machinery was 
devised and operated in three months, while 
Lloyd Greorge was denouncing the British work- 
ing class for their shiftlessness and intemper- 
ance. As a result of organization, sacrifice, 
unity and mobilization of all the people, whether 
on or off the battlefields, at home or abroad, 
Germany is conducting successful warfare at 
one-third the total daily cost of her foes. Her 
people have demonstrated to the world that they 
have the ability to organize society as a social 
unit, incomparable with the rotting British sys- 
tem of individualism and selfishness. Young 
Ireland can well afford to seize this opportunity 
to inquire on which side lies success or failure 
after the war. 



80 What Could Germany Bo For Ireland^ 

THE GEEMAK NATION HAS NO QUAEEEL WITH THE 

lEISH PEOPLE 

The men at the helm in Germany know that 
the people of Ireland have no liberty and have 
no voice in the war which England declared on 
Germany. The only member of the British 
Cabinet from Ireland during the war was Sir 
Edward Carson — an inveterate enemy of the 
Irish National canse. 

Although there are fortified places in Ireland 
— docks, wharves and military barracks — ^there 
have been no attacks made on the Irish coasts, 
and the Zeppelins have not dropped bombs on 
Ireland, although the war has now lasted nearly 
a year and a half, and Ireland is a component 
part of the British Empire and a small partner 
in Great Britain. There would be every mili- 
tary reason for assailing Ireland as well as 
England, but the Germans know that in Ireland, 
as well as in America, there is a large class of 
Celts who are not deceived as to the cause or the 
origin of the war, and who believe that the best 
interests of Ireland eventually rest in the vic- 
tories that may come to German arms. 

Up to the present time the German Govern- 



Irish Hopes in Germany or England 81 

ment has made good the announcement made by 
the German Foreign Office on November 20, 
1914, when the German Secretary of State for 
Foreign Affairs made the following official 
statement on behalf of the Imperial Chancellor, 
ven Bethmann Hollweg : 

The Imperial Government rejects with the utmost 
decision the evil intentions ascribed to it. The Gov- 
ernment takes this opportunity of making the cate- 
gorical assurance that Germany cherishes only senti- 
ments of good will for the prosperity of the Irish 
people, their land, and their institutions. The Im- 
perial Government declares formally that Germany 
would not invade Ireland with any intention of con- 
quest or of the destruction of any institutions. If, 
in the course of this war, which Germany did not 
seek, the fortune of arms should ever bring German 
troops to the coasts of Ireland, they would land there, 
not as an army of invaders coming to rob or destroy, 
but as the fighting forces of a government inspired 
only by good will toward a land and a people for 
whom Germany only wishes national prosperity and 
national freedom. 

The people of Ireland are coming to notice 
that the fortified British bases in Ireland have 
not been attacked, although again and again 
they have heard the sound of the German guns 
off the Irish coast. The German submarines 
make it a rule, as far as possible, to save Irish 



82 What Could Germany Do For Ireland? 

fishing boats and trawlers when they are iden- 
tified. 

The people of Ireland have mnch sympathy 
for France and Belgium. They are the two 
countries that hold some sections of the Irish 
race in line for England, but there is no love 
lost for England in most of the counties in Ire- 
land. She cares nothing about Servia, Eussia 
or Japan, and she always respected Austria- 
Hungary and greatly admired Germany before 
the war. This is not Ireland's war, and the pity 
is that any Irishman should have to die to save 
England. 

The British control the press of Ireland. 
Twelve Irish Nationalist newspapers have been 
suppressed, and of course it is thus very easy to 
malign the German race and make people swal- 
low falsities. 

There are scarcely any Germans in Ireland. 
The language is strange, and the minds of many 
people are influenced in Ireland by the unjust 
charges against Germany, just as we find well- 
meaning people in America misled by the Brit- 
ish cables, but the scales are dropping from 
many Irish eyes and the truth is being seen. 



Irish Hopes in Germany or England 83 

They recall the fact that Germany preserves 
the Irish language in her colleges, and that Ger- 
man professors are among the most noted 
scholars in the language and history of ancient 
Ireland. They recall that some years ago the 
German fleet visited Irish ports and the enjoy- 
ment of the crews who witnessed the national 
games in Ireland. They are reminded that 
when the great Hamburg- American Steamship 
Line proposed to have its steamers stop at Cork 
harbor, both on their eastward and westward 
journey, after the English declaration that the 
principal English steamers would no longer 
stop at Queenstown, addresses of welcome and 
gratitude were forwarded to Germany by the 
municipal corporations and other bodies in Ire- 
land. For the first time the flags of Ireland, 
Germany and America were interwoven, and 
there was deep regret when the British Govern- 
ment forced the Hamburg-American Line to 
abandon its intended and advertised sailings 
from the port of Cork. 



CHAPTER IV 

THE EEAL ROOTS OF GEEMAN STTOOESS 

In the second month of the war the writer, in 
company with an English friend, was riding 
atop of a motor bus, passing through a factory- 
working-class district in London. He thought 
the Russians would take Berlin by Christmas 
and the * * Huns ' ' would be driven from France 
and Belgium in short order, and that English 
brawn and money, with nearly the whole world's 
support, would soon destroy Germany. He was 
merely repeating the stereotyped phrases of the 
day and place. The writer casually reminded 
him there was a difference in men, as the result 
of national system, training and discipline, 
which in the modern art of scientific war might 
prove more essential than men or money. Just 
then the factory workers poured forth from the 
mills. My friend, who had passed much of his 
life in America, took sharp notice of the men 
and women, many of them worn and spent 
ahead of their time, shrunken, colorless, with 

84 



The Real Roots of German Success 85 

stooping shoulders and bad chests, until he 
sadly admitted that the men were not fitted to 
cope with trained men. ' ' They seem to be badly 
fed/' he said, and he was enwrapped in gloom 
after he saw the wretched condition of the 
women and children crowded in the many sin- 
gle-room family tenements of the neighborhood. 

More than thirty years ago Bismarck de- 
livered the ideas of the German Government 
and put the working-class laws into effect which 
have resulted in the almost undisputed superi- 
ority of the Teutonic forces in every branch of 
labor and endurance called forth by the strug- 
gles of the past year. 

Bismarck proclaimed the German doctrine in 
these words : 

Give the workingman work as long as he is healthy, 
assure him care when he is sick, insure him mainte- 
nance when he is old. "Was not the right to work 
openly proclaimed at the time of the publication of 
the common law? Is it not established in our social 
arrangements that the man who comes before his 
fellow citizens and says, "I am healthy; I desire to 
work but can find no work/' is entitled to say also, 
* * Give me work, ' ' and that th'e state is bound to give 
him work? 

'*But large public works would be neces- 
sary," exclaimed an opponent. ^^Of course,'' 



86 What Could Germany Do For Ireland? 

replied Bismarck. ^^Let them be undertaken; 
why not? It is the state's duty.'' Then fol- 
lowed state insurance for the sick and aged, in- 
dustrial pensions, regulation of food prices, re- 
striction of monopolies, government ownership, 
and a marvelously complete government system 
of education, the like of which exists in no other 
country. There is much remaining to be done 
in Germany and many of her institutions and 
methods are properly criticized. Yet it cannot 
be denied that the government has done much 
to steadily better the conditions of the workers 
and their families and, in co-operative effort, 
has long been ahead of England, where middle- 
class hatred of national team-work and class 
consciousness notoriously prevent the English 
from working together for the common good. 
An Englishman with wealth is usually arrogant 
and considers himself virtuous and superior to 
all poor people, blames them altogether for the 
misery in which they are plunged, and bitterly 
resists Lloyd George's old-age pension laws, 
copied from those which Germany had adopted 
for decades. The student of sociological legis- 
lation invariably turns to Germany as the pio- 



The Real Boots of German Success 87 

neer in laws for the relief and improvement of 
wage-workers. 

We quote the words of Frank Koester, a re- 
liable authority and an engineer of renown : 

In Germany, as a result of her governmental 
bureaus of employment and the generally more secure 
tenure of employment of the employed, during a series 
of seven years ending 1910, the total unemployment 
varied from a little over one to a little less than three 
per cent, while during the same period in the United 
States, based on averages from statistics in certain 
States, the unemployment varied from 6 to 28 per 
cent. 

It is not to be wondered at under such circum- 
stances that emigration from Germany to this 
country is only about one-fifteenth of its former 
figures. The wonder is that there is any emi- 
gration from Germany. In Germany, one per- 
son in four is a wage-earner; in the United 
States the ratio is one to two and three-quar- 
ters. Thus a much larger number of persons, 
especially of women, must work here. In Ger- 
many the wage-earner retires ten years sooner 
than in America or in England, where he us- 
ually drops in his tracks first. 

When the vast totals of privation, discourage- 
ment, loss of health, hope and savings are con- 



88 What Could Germany Do For Ireland? 

sidered, as shown by the great percentages of 
unemployment in the United States and Eng- 
land, even in the best times, the failure of Con- 
gress to organize the exchange of labor and em- 
ployment amounts to little less than a national 
crime. It is a sad legislative spectacle, that of 
continual struggles for mean and petty partisan 
advantages while the true interests of the pub- 
lic are neglected. 

Without government organization the chance 
of the workingman finding work would be much 
smaller and the risk would be so much greater 
that he could not afford to insure himself 
against unemployment. Thus it will be seen 
that one good system breeds another, whereas 
in countries like the United States and England, 
where there is little or no system, and the find- 
ing of employment is a haphazard proceeding, 
the establishment of a system of insurance 
against unemployment would be chimerical. 

Having exerted its efforts in securing work 
for the workman and in keeping his employment 
endurable and healthful, the German Govern- 
ment does not in his age or extremity abandon 
its workman. 



The Real Roots of German Success 89 

During his whole life he has been compelled 
to contribute to sick benefit and old-age funds, 
to which his employer and government 
must also contribute, so that whatever the 
eventuality, it will already be found provided 
for. 

Compensation and benefit insurance has been 
established in Germany since 1881 and has from 
time to time been extended. The principal 
forms are sick insurance, accident insurance, in- 
valid insurance, invalidity and old-age insur- 
ance, maternity insurance, widows' and or- 
phans ' insurance. 

The operation of this form of insurance 
superseded claims for indemnity against pri- 
vate employers and substituted, instead of a 
lump sum for accidental injuries, small pay- 
ments made periodically. 

The word pauper is unknown in Germany, the 
insurance systems having given the workmen by 
right the assistance which in other countries is 
extended as a charge against the public. This 
feeling of security against the eventualities of 
the future is a powerful factor in the relations 
of the citizen to the state and to his employers ; 



90 What Could Germany Do For Ireland? 

it makes life more livable for tlie poor man in 
Germany than it is in any other country. 

Thus the insurance systems as instigated by 
Bismarck and today copied by practically all 
civilized countries the world over, lend a back- 
bone of confidence to the whole empire. The 
wolf cannot approach the door so closely, and 
whatever may happen, there is a margin of 
financial safety, a breakwater between the 
worker and necessity, which does not involve 
charity. 

Thus he feels freer to devote his energies to 
his work and the result is efficiency ; indeed, the 
highest state of efficiency which has ever been 
reached by any nation. 

A capitalist of renown in America, Mr. 
George W. Perkins, has noted the success of 
Germany, as contrasted with the United States 
and England, in dealing with large industrial 
units. In speaking of the failures of American 
trust regulating Mr. Perkins said: 

While these things have been happening in our own 
country, our greatest industrial competitor, Ger- 
many, has been pursuing exactly the opposite course. 
While our so-called statesmen have been haranguing 
our people on the subject of giant corporations being 



The Real Roots of German Success 91 

a menace to their liberty, to their business, and physi- 
cal welfare, and have been demanding that we return 
to the methods of ruthless competition and abandon 
co-operation, German statesmen have been preaching 
exactly the opposite doctrine to their people. For 
twenty-five years Germany and this country have 
been pursuing opposite economic policies. Our Sher- 
man Law was passed twenty -five years ago ; and since 
that time, and particularly during the past fifteen 
years, our politicians have thrived and grown fat in 
an effort to force our business men to be business men 
under a literal interpretation of that law, which, our 
politicians have told us, means the breaking up of all 
large business units and the holding of our commer- 
cial relations to a strictly competitive basis. 

Twenty-five years ago Germany was the land of the 
small industrial unit, and her people were leaving the 
country every year in large numbers, seeking some 
other land where they hoped to find better industrial 
conditions. Then Germany gradually changed her 
system of economics. Her political leaders, her states- 
men, with great foresight and after careful thought 
and study, realized that modern intercommunication 
must inevitably mean centralization, vast expansion 
in trading opportunities, vast responsibilities for the 
State, vast additional powers for the man of large 
mental endowment and of large means. 

In place of passing laws to repress and repel and 
prohibit all this, the Germans took exactly the oppo- 
site course and began to gather these industries to- 
gether into large units, under the watchful eye of 
the government or under the actual control of the 
government in some form. Rapidly, and practically 
in unison with the mighty growth of intercommunica- 
tion, Germany has forged ahead during the last 
twenty-five years, centralizing her various industries, 
until now nearly every industry in Germany is or- 
ganized and centralized in some form of large busi- 



92 What Could Germany Do For Ireland? 

ness unit. As a result, great commercial power and 
vast commercial profits have come to her people. And 
now, mark this well: While this centralization has 
been going on emigration from Germany has fallen 
from what was a very large figure twenty-five years 
ago practically to zero during the last two or three 
years. Does not this rebuke the theories of our poli- 
ticians and so-called statesmen ? For the theory they 
have been preaching has been that if we permitted 
centralization and co-operation in business, it would 
bring hardship and ruin to our people. 

Whatever may be said or thought regarding Ger- 
many's attitude in the present war, no thoughtful, 
studious man, who has taken the pains to study Ger- 
many's commercial evolution during the last twenty- 
five years, can for one moment doubt that her states- 
men have been on the right industrial track ; that they 
have been long-headed and far-sighted ; that they have 
cast off the economics of the past and taken on the 
economics of the future ; that they have discarded old 
laws and old methods and enacted new laws and 
adopted new methods, to keep abreast of the new age 
in which the world is moving and living; and that 
all this has been to the great material advantage of 
Germany's people as a whole. 

Control of the seas so long, wealth from all 
parts of the world pouring into the laps of her 
landlord and capitalistic class, idle parasites on 
the one hand, idle workingmen on the other, in- 
difference of the wealthy and powerful to the 
struggles and weaknesses of the masses in 
crowded cities, so blinded the English nation 
that her people failed to see the methods by 



The Real Boots of German Success 93 

which German achievements were won. She 
has sought through charity, rather than justice, 
to appease her oppressed working people. Con- 
fident of her supreme control of the waters of 
the world, England has been lulled into a fan- 
cied sense of security. None could enter her 
world. Germany, the cock-pit of Europe for 
centuries, surrounded by vigilant enemies, has 
worked unceasingly to strengthen her race and 
her states. Sleeping with one eye open, the em- 
pire only forty years young, always on guard, 
working early morn, late in the day, and always 
realizing that any national vice or weakness 
meant insecurity and decay, this young giant of 
confederacy is a new modern Germany where 
genius makes war in workshops, colleges and 
laboratories, exhausting, perhaps destroying- 
forever, the prestige of the mighty British Em- 
pire. 

England, with all her alliances, her vast pos- 
sessions, population and wealth, according to 
the London Daily Mail^ finds herself in a state 
of ^* unparalleled danger.'^ Her internal weak- 
nesses have made her prey for her enemies and 
her divisions, advertised to the world, along 



94 What Could Germany Do For Ireland? 

with her enervations, have amazed all save 
those who have known of the nation's cancers. 

Germany has never been unmindful of the 
coalition that might be formed against her. 
And she has conserved the mental, moral and 
physical strength of her people to that end. 
Quoting from Bismarck in his famous speech 
of February 6, 1888, called ^^We Germans fear 
God, and naught else in the world," we find 
these words : 

The thought, however, that we can have one million 
good soldiers for our defense on either frontier will 
be reassuring. In figures the others are as strong as 
we, but in quality they cannot equal us. Courage is 
the same with all civilized nations, but our people 
are trained, disciplined, experienced, who have for- 
gotten nothing. In addition, no nation in the world 
can equal us in our material of officers and subalterns 
to direct such a huge army. This means the remark- 
able degree to which popular education has spread in 
Germany, and which appears in no other country. 
The degree of education which is needed to qualify an 
officer and a subaltern to command according to what 
the soldiers expect of them is found with us far more 
extensively than elsewhere. We have more of the 
material out of which officers, and more out of which 
subalterns are made, than any other country, and we 
have a body of officers which no country in the world 
can equal. 

This, and the excellence of our subalterns, who are 
the pupils of our officers, constitute our superiority. 
The other nations cannot equal us in the amount of 



The Real Boots of German Success 95 

education which qualifies an officer to fulfill the se- 
vere requirements of his station, and of good com- 
radeship to bear all the necessary privations, and at 
the same time to satisfy the exceedingly difficult so- 
cial demands which must be met, if the feeling of 
good fellowship between officers and men, which, 
thank God, exists in our army to a high and often 
stirring degree, is to be established without detracting 
from the authority of the officers. The relations ex- 
isting, especially in war time, between our officers and 
men are inimitable, with few exceptions which only 
prove the rule, for, on the whole, we may say: No 
German officer forsakes his men under fire ; he saves 
them at the risk of his life, and they do the same ; no 
German soldier forsakes his officer — we have experi- 
enced this. 

The internal condition of Germany at the end 
of 1915 means that she will long continue to be 
the best organized industrial unit. The world 
has never seen such mobilization of the energies 
and genius of a great state, and the interests of 
Ireland are clearly linked with the states and 
civilizations which are passing England as 
world powers; they are the United States and 
Germany. 



CHAPTER y 

THE STATE OE THE INDIVIDTJAL 

Feom a London Times editorial, August 3, 1915, 
recounting bitterly the British war failures of 
the first year, the following quotation is taken : 

This struggle has taught the allies many lessons, but 
the most vital of them is that England must win or 
lose forever her high place among the nations of the 
earth. The revelations made in the papers issued by 
the various governments, and still more the unheard 
of methods with which Germany is conducting this 
war, have burned into their minds the knowledge that 
German victory would mean the irretrievable ruin of 
England, and with it the downfall of European civi- 
lization. 

Between the civilization of England and the civili- 
zation of the German state there exists a gulf that is 
impassable. One represents democratic ideals of 
righteousness and human fellowship, the other annihi- 
lation of the individual before the supreme right of 
the state. 

Nothing can reconcile the two. One must succumb 
to the other. We are determined that it shall not be 
the one upon which the greatness of our race has al- 
ways rested and upon which our noblest hopes depend. 

The war is the supreme test of European civi- 
lization in all its branches. The broad and al- 
ways unclosed gulf between the English classes 

96 



The State or the Individual 97 

and masses impairs her right to call herself a 
democratic nation, and history shows that in 
actual practice she is one of the most imper- 
vious of nations to democratic ideals. Out- 
wardly the English forms seem to the traveler 
less autocratic and more free than German gov- 
ernment methods and customs. And the large 
standing German army at the service of the 
state, with the narrowness of military life, op- 
presses the American traveler, and the tourist, 
on a short trip, returns with the notion that 
England is more free and liberal than Germany. 
These are but surface indications. The writer 
is acquainted with several Americans who have 
passed part of their lives both in Germany and 
in England, and each one is a stout advocate of 
Germany as against England in the war. 

The Rev. Dr. Thomas Hall, of New York, a 
noted Presbyterian minister, native of County 
Antrim, Ireland, after spending years of his 
life in Germany and England, says the qualities 
of German civilization are the highest, and that 
in actual practice the German ideals of adminis- 
tration are more genuinely democratic than the 
English. They have made the cities the home 



98 What Could German^/ Do For Ireland? 

of democracy, he states, and all will die for that 
home. 

The test of a govermnent is not in its forms 
or name, but in the condition of the people. 
Mexico boasts of a most flexible, democratic 
constitution, and her leaders who have shouted 
liberty the loudest have proven the greatest ty- 
rants and blood-shedders. 

Several of the South American republics and 
Central American states under democratic 
forms have oppressed the people, assassinated 
their rulers and beggared the land. Until 
within the past few years democratic England 
would not permit an Irishman to own land in 
his native country. 

In France we find the Socialist leaders rising 
to eminence and the control of the government 
on the backs of the masses, entering the Cabinet, 
only to be charged by their followers with be- 
traying democratic ideals and selling out to the 
capitalist class. 

In the same year that the British ** democ- 
racy" was proclaiming the deliverance of small 
nations from Napoleon (1814) the same govern- 
ment issued an order **to destroy and lay waste 



The State or the Individual 99 

all towns and districts of the United States 
found accessive to the attack of the British ar- 
maments. ' ' 

The real democrats in the British Cabinet, 
John Morley, John Burns, Trevelyan, Haldane, 
were thrust aside by the crushing power of the 
English commercial classes, jealous of German 
success in trade. The voice of pure democracy 
burst forth from the hearts of J. Ramsay 
McDonald, M. P., the late Keir Hardie, M. P., 
George Bernard Shaw, Frank Harris and Ar- 
thur Ponsonby, protesting against the war on 
Germany as unjust and unnecessary. 

England as a **pure democracy" destroyed 
the only two remaining democratic states in 
Africa or Asia, the Boer Eepublic and the 
Orange Free State. Germany has never had a 
quarrel with a democratic power since the em- 
pire was formed. 

The complex changes of civilization have 
tended to increase the duties and power of the 
state and correspondingly lessen the power and 
limits of the individual. If the German state, 
despite unpleasant forms, brings its population 
to more contentment and happiness than a de- 



100 What Could Germany Do For Ireland? 

mocracy moulded in Britain, where so many in- 
dividuals claim the right to starve and live 
miserably, then some of us may well question 
the alleged superiority of the system of indi- 
vidualism which England says she is fighting to 
preserve. 

Belgium is not a democracy but a kingdom, in 
social legislation one of the most reactionary 
countries, and in her conquest of the Congo 
ruthless, pitiless in her greed for rubber, and 
proven to have committed most horrible atroc- 
ities on the natives. Students of history are 
fully aware that England has never gone to war 
to save a small nation. In the light of her black 
record in destroying so many small nations, and 
her several unsuccessful attempts to destroy 
the American democracy, one is amazed to find 
many Americans sympathizing with England 
on the queer theory that she is the champion of 
small nations and the last valiant defender of 
democracy abroad. 

Germany, hemmed in on all sides by ambitious 
nations, desiring to expand, found it necessary 
to centralize and apparently sacrifice the am- 
bitious projects of the individual to the good of 



The State or the Individual 101 

the state. This plan has worked out well, has 
bulwarked and barricaded the national ideal 
with the feeling of her entire population, so 
that her national unity and common purpose, 
isolated though it may have made her in some 
^^neutraP' quarters, has proved her salvation 
in the war. Anxious to court public opinion in 
America, believing that she is misunderstood 
and slandered by England, who holds the ear 
of the world, no matter how important our good 
will might be, she never forgets, first and last, 
that the solidarity of opinion of her own people 
is vital and paramount, and that is the basis of 
all of her moves in war and economics. 

Macauley says that ^^of all aristocracies the 
English is the most democratic and of all de- 
mocracies the English is the most aristocratic. ' ' 

The present government of England in the 
House of Commons is the shopkeepers, through 
the shopkeeper's barristers, and in the House 
of Lords the scions of the houses of landed aris- 
tocracy, between which houses there is an im- 
passable class barrier, and yet the merchant, 
class conscious commoner, is often found aping 
the nobility, secretly admiring or envying the 



102 What Could Germany Do For Ir eland f 

lords, and hoping against hope to receive a 
title from the king. 

When you are on the high seas or in the 
tropics with a mixed company of Germans and 
English, almost invariably you find the former 
more liberal and democratic than the English, 
whose conceit and arrogance are insufferable. I 
remember meeting one in the West Indies who 
was hurrying home to vote for Member of Par- 
liament, and he could vote four times, as he held 
property in four places. In Germany a man 
votes once only for the Eeichstag, as it should 
be. There is no restricted property suffrage, 
which somewhat reduces the claimant's right to 
be considered a pure democracy. 

The scientist, AKred Russel Wallace, says 
the history of no other country affords a paral- 
lel for England's ** hypocritical lack of national 
morality," as borne out by her history. Indi- 
vidualism, carried to the extreme, has not made 
out a good case for democracy when twenty per 
cent, of all men in England are consigned to a 
pauper's grave, and where millions of people 
are part of families which live in a single room. 

The sad cries of Belgium have appealed to 



The State or the Individual 103 

the individualist's spirit of the English people, 
no doubt, and the commercial class ministry of 
Asquith and Grey has succeeded in convincing 
the wageworker that he is the defender of Bel- 
gium and all small nations, contrary to history ; 
and as the London Leader said at the opening 
of the war: 

Britain is now supposed to be the champion of 
small peoples, yet we have the example of Persia be- 
fore our eyes today. Persia, whose independence was 
guaranteed by Britain and who has been swallowed 
by Russia! The neutrality and independence of 
Korea was guaranteed by Britain, France and Rus- 
sia, but Korea was seized by Japan and her queen 
murdered by Japanese agents. Morocco was divided 
between France and Spain, with the connivance of 
Britain, for England, like every other nation, breaks 
treaties when convenient to herself. 

The writer does not contend that the English 
democracy lacks virility in parts, or is wanting 
in courage or patriotism, or has failed to ac- 
complish notable reforms for the good of the 
people, but he does claim, and his opinion is 
based on close observation of the two races for 
the past two decades, and a study of facts, re- 
sults and reports, aided by the opportunity to 
travel and observe, that England is breaking 



104 What Could Germany Do For Ireland? 

down under individualism and unrestrained 
competition, whereas Germany is more con- 
stantly prosperous; works along co-operative 
lines, steadily advancing; that her centralized 
system is better for her people in the mass and 
is turning out stronger men and women, better 
fed, trained and disciplined children; and that 
she is superior to England in national unity 
and execution. 

The writer would not enlarge on the national 
vices, slackness, lack of patriotism and selfish- 
ness, with which traits of national character 
England is twitted by her own distraught 
leaders and newspapers. Sufficient to say that 
the efficiency of the German state system, so 
despised by the individualists, has not broken 
down anywhere. The people suffer and die and 
undergo terrible sacrifices, but the national 
spirit, resource, character, invention and unity 
are as fine and as sure as at the outbreak of the 
war. There are no German weaknesses to be 
exposed. The training and discipline of forty 
years have accomplished their work. 

Under the *^pure democracy" and individual 

system of England, the war has exposed to the 



The State or the Individual 105 

world the instability of relations between the 
employer and wageworkers. The manufacturer 
wanted to make *^big money'' out of the war 
and the toiler wanted an eight-hour day and 
double wages. Many in both classes wanted 
someone else to do the fighting, and the result 
has been a poor army made up of volunteers, 
while the able-bodied and skilled men in great 
part have remained at home to profit, if pos- 
sible, by the large profits and unusual wages 
paid to workers. In Germany, whose every 
man, fit, mentally and physically, must serve 
in the army, none can remain behind save those 
who are absolutely necessary for the welfare 
of the people at home. The average German 
regards great war profits from his country as 
a crime of sacrilege, and the largest manufac- 
turers have given up most of their profits, 
either to the government on the war loans or to 
the various relief funds. There has been no 
sudden jump in war munition fortunes or in the 
wages of labor, or any army contract scandals, 
as in England, where manufacturers have been 
sentenced to imprisonment for actually selling 
war supplies to the Teutons. In Germany, the 



106 What Could Germany Do For Ireland? 

available young, unmarried men are at the 
front, in sharp contrast to the single men of 
England, who, in great part, have permitted the 
married men to lose their lives in the trenches 
while the wives and children will be left to 
struggle for existence after the war. In a coun- 
try where individualism and sharp competition 
survive as a system and produce a multitude 
of unfit, the toll and reckoning is paid when a 
great war demands the life-blood of the people. 
The Eussian peasant, without skill or educa- 
tion, victim of centuries of bad government, 
falls like chaff before the trained and educated 
Teutons. While the English factory worker 
or farmhand recruit, worn out by his system 
of production and economics, swells the cas- 
ualty lists out of proportion to the size of the 
army. This lamentable exhibit is not due to 
lack of courage or intrepidity. They are brave, 
but they are not equal to their more hardy and 
scientific adversaries, because their country has 
sacrificed the minds and bodies of the men to 
individual money-making. And the mothers 
and women and children were not protected in 
the fierce struggle to control the world's mar- 



The State or the Individual 107 

kets. London is the only place I have seen in 
Europe or America where labor is such a plen- 
tiful commodity that it can be hired by the one 
or three hours. In this period of war all labor 
is employed, and small wonder is it that the 
submerged, finding at last a steady job at 
princely wages, reject the appeals of the re- 
cruiting sergeant. Great sacrifices have been 
made by a limited number of people in England 
during the war, but there has been no national 
sacrifice as in France or Germany. They must 
not forego their pleasures and amusements or 
luxuries, even though they are told over and 
over again by press, pulpit and government that 
the very existence of the empire is in grave 
peril. At the end of the first year of the war 
the annual expenditure of the island of England 
alone for jewelry was $125,000,000, for 
alcoholic liquors $900,000,000, gambling $125,- 
000,000, tobacco $150,000,000, golf $25,000- 
000. A race horse sold for $200,000 and 
$20,000 was paid for two antique snuff 
boxes. 

In Germany the spirit of thrift is universal 
and the man or woman guilty of extravagance, 



108 What Could Germany Do For Ireland? 

of failing to share or to give, is shunned and 
ostracized in all cities and villages. 

In the United States we no longer hear the 
cry that this is the Kaiser's war. Those voices 
have been stilled in the presence of German 
unity. Rome, in the greatest days of the em- 
pire, never showed the universal spirit and soli- 
darity of the German nation after sixteen 
months of the deadliest war the world has 
known. The proletariat of France never rallied 
to the colors of Napoleon with the unanimity 
shown by the Socialists of Germany or the 
brave Bavarian Catholic troops, united in de- 
fense of the Fatherland. A large section of the 
American nation, including most of her wealthy 
men, opposed the illustrious Washington and 
allowed his troops to starve and freeze. Would 
that Ireland, in her long and bloody history, 
could have given proof of such national unity! 
From the Baltic Sea to the River Elbe, from the 
banks of the Rhine to the banks of the Vistula, 
in every home, from the head of the house and 
mother down, lies the spirit of self-sacrifice, and 
the motto is, **one for all — all for one." 

Dr. Karl Helfferich, Secretary of the 



The State or the Individual 109 

Imperial Treasury, has prepared a signed 
statement on German economics and finan- 
cial affairs, as he views them at the end 
of the first year of the war. His statement fol- 
lows: 

The economic and financial features of the first 
year of the war are, in my opinion, the following : 

First. — The British starvation war has failed. Once 
and for all it has been proved that our domestic pro- 
duction of foodstuffs, bread card system and maxi- 
mum prices assure even to the poorest the necessary 
supply of food, and that at prices lower than prevail- 
ing in Great Britain. 

Second. — Nor can we starve in raw materials. The 
difficulties cast in the way of the importation of raw 
materials, in violation of international law, are un- 
pleasant for us, but are not fatal. We have in our 
own country an ample supply of the most important 
raw materials — coal and iron — and of others we have 
on hand, manufactured or unmanufactured, great sup- 
plies, which, with the economical employment thereof 
insured by our methods of organization, are virtually 
inexhaustible. 

Third. — The specter of unemployment has been 
banished. There is more work than workers. The 
war has proved itself to be a greater employer of 
labor than our export trade was. 

Fourth. — So far as finances are concerned, Germany 
will carry the war through for an unlimited time. 
We produce in our own country virtually everything 
needed for war. Thus expenditures for war purposes 
resolve themselves into savings; these, again, are at 
the empire's disposition as payments on the war 
loans; and deposits are fiowing into the banks and 
savings institutions more plentifully than in times of 



110 What Could Germany Do For Ireland? 

peace. The total of deposits today, after over $3,000,- 
000,000 have been paid on war loans, is higher than 
at the outbreak of the war. The gold reserve of the 
Reichsbank has almost doubled since the war began. 
Notes and deposits in the Reichsbank covered by gold 
are 33.5 per cent., as compared with 26.7 per cent, in 
the Bank of France and 21.7 in the Bank of England. 
Fifth. — The confidence of the German people in our 
financial strength is as unbounded as their confidence 
in our military superiority. After twelve months of 
war, Imperial 3's are quoted at 70, which is 8 points 
below the quotation in March, 1914; the minimum 
price of British Consols, 65, is 11 per cent, below the 
quotation in March, 1914 ; 3 per cent. French Rentes, 
at 69, are 19 per cent, below March, 1914. Work, 
skill, discipline, organization, economy, and last but 
not least, the categorical imperative of patriotism have 
upheld Germany in the first year against enemies, and 
will help us further to win the war. 

Thus we see that militarism is but one of the 
arms which account for German victories. Only 
in the last few years has England taken steps 
to save the poor, and all students of social legis- 
lation know that Germany is far ahead of 
England in all works to ameliorate the working, 
living and housing conditions of the people. 
Friends of Ireland must seriously consider at 
this period the leadership of Germany in the 
qualities of organization, co-operation,, getting 
things well done^ and apply to Ireland, with 
German aid, a system of organizing her re- 



The State or the Individual 111 

sources and developing her industries, thus 
breaking away from the chains that will bind 
her to an exhausted England, perhaps an eco- 
nomic corpse after the war. Ireland is too poor 
to pay her allotted share of the huge war debt 
and her misery will increase. 

While Germany rolled up wealth along with 
England in times of peace, poverty and misery 
increased among the English and lessened 
among the Germans. The writer has seen men 
and women in the streets of England digging in 
the garbage cans for food. English snobbery 
and hypocrisy will not forgive the Germans for 
greater success in solving sociological prob- 
lems. Charity, not justice, for the poor is the 
only remedy applied to them in England. 
Rarely do you find a rich man in that country 
who does not condemn the poor for their mis- 
fortunes. That a man should not be able to 
provide more than one room for his family sets 
him down as a disgusting failure. They were 
almost on the verge of social revolution when 
the war broke out, and many competent ob- 
servers believe that Asquith went into the war 
to save the destruction of the home government. 



112 What Could Germany Do For Ireland? 

They blame the Germans for preparedness in 
the art of war, but why should they blame them 
for their superior science? The Germans have 
done wonders in electricity, chemistry, surgery, 
water-power and food products, while the Eng- 
lish have been standing still. They are the solid 
foundation on which Germany stands not to lose 
this war. That is the spirit which possesses 
every German household from the master down 
to the family cat. Success and superiority in 
nations as well as individuals always excite 
hatred and jealousy. 

Mr. H. G. Wells, the eminent English critic, 
said before the war : 

"We in Great Britain are now intensely jealous of 
Germany. We are intensely jealous of Germany, not 
only because the Germans outnumber us and have a 
much larger and more diversified country than ours, 
which lies in the very heart and body of Europe, but 
because in the last hundred years, while we have fed 
on platitudes and vanity, they have had the energy 
and humility to develop a splendid system of na- 
tional education, to toil at science and art and litera- 
ture, to develop social organization, to master and 
better our methods of business and industry, and to 
clamber above us in the scale of civilization. This has 
humiliated and irritated rather than chastened us. 

The absence of factories and commerce from 
the greater part of Ireland accounts for the 



The State or the Individual 113 

failure of her immigrants, as a class, to gain 
much of a footing in the business world. The 
young men who are forced to leave the island 
and make their way in strange lands, with few 
exceptions, lack commercial training. How 
often do we hear people say that they rarely 
find a Celtic name over the shops and factories 
of American cities ! A race of business men is 
not made in a single generation. The Irish im- 
migrants turn, to the police force, politics and 
those pursuits we see them in the oftenest be- 
cause they and their fathers were never fur- 
nished with the opportunity in Ireland to learn 
modern business. Commerce in a large way is 
a dead art in all but one county (Antrim) and 
the immigrant class cannot be expected to cope 
with conditions wholly unfamiliar to them and 
their day and generation. They need the ex- 
perienced and efficient brains of the trained 
Germans to help them get a start in the race. 
They are adaptable and learn easily, but they 
are without the wealth, tools and scientific 
knowledge necessary to develop the long-ne- 
glected resources of the country. The individ- 
ual needs the protection of the state, and in the 



114 What Could Germany Do For Ireland'^ 

German co-operative system, as against the 
English rule of the survival of the fittest, lies 
the only hope of the Celtic race ever making 
practical use of their natural resources. 

The national health insurance laws have bene- 
fited the city workers of Ireland, but as most 
of the people depend on agriculture, the latter 
class have shared little in its benefits. The 
laws are only three years old, copied from Ger- 
many, whose people have been protected by in- 
surance laws for thirty years. In Germany the 
government insures all of its workmen against 
the certainty of death, which is not allowed in. 
Ireland. 



CHAPTER VI 

THE GATEWAY OF EUKOPE 
lEELAND IS THE GATEWAY OF EUEOPE 

The late Admiral Mahan of the United States 
Navy is conceded to have been one of the fore- 
most writers of his time on naval warfare. He 
is the authority for the statement that *^ Ireland, 
by geographical position, lies across and con- 
trols the communications of Great Britain with 
all the Eastern World, save only that consider- 
able, but far from preponderant, portion which 
borders the North Sea and the Baltic. ' ' In his 
opinion, were Ireland independent and hostile 
to England, her position would manacle Eng- 
land. From that standpoint he concluded that 
England could not aif ord to concede Home Rule 
to Ireland without undermining her own stra- 
tegical position. 

Glancing at the map of Europe, it is easy to 
see that Ireland is the natural connecting link 
between the Eastern and Western Worlds. To 
the east lies the continent of Europe, of which 

"5 



116 What Could Germany Do For Ireland? 

it is the most westerly part, whilst to the west 
of Ireland, directly facing it, lies North Amer- 
ica, comprising the United States and Canada. 
The promontories of Ireland on its north, west 
and south coastlines are visible at an immense 
distance ont at sea, and its commodious harbors 
on the south and west stretch out wide into the 
Atlantic, inviting a union between the Eastern 
and "Western Hemispheres. 

Ireland enjoys a commanding position on the 
globe — a fact so early and long recognized by 
England that it has influenced the policy of suc- 
cessive British administrations during the past 
seven hundred years in respect to Ireland. The 
possession of Ireland by England has placed the 
dominion of all the seas in Britain's hands, and 
has enabled her to build up the vast mercantile 
marine that now carries the goods of the world, 
to the enrichment of the British Empire. The 
importance of Ireland's position was known to 
the Danes, who attempted, but failed, to subju- 
gate Ireland to the rule of the Vikings more 
than eleven hundred years ago. In the early 
years of the Christian era, when the Roman 
Empire dominated the then known world, 



The Gateway of Europe 117 

Agricola laid plans for the conquest of Ireland. 
The Romans conquered Britain, yet hesitated to 
attempt the enslavement of the then powerful 
Celtic nation, so that Ireland never passed un- 
der the dominion of the Caesars. 

Ireland is not physically connected with Eng- 
land or with Scotland. It is an island — the sec- 
ond largest and the most westerly in Europe ; 
its boundaries are clearly defined and marked 
out by nature. Ireland's frontiers are far more 
definite than the boundaries of the large ma- 
jority of the remaining European countries. 
The mighty Atlantic laves the northerly, west- 
erly and southerly shores of Ireland, whilst on 
the east Ireland is divided from England, Scot- 
land and Wales by the North Channel, the Irish 
Sea and St. George's Channel. Within 100 
miles of the west coast of Ireland, a depth of 
1,000 fathoms is obtainable in the Atlantic, and 
within 200 miles of the Kerry coast, the south- 
west corner of Ireland, the abyssal depth of 
over 16,000 feet is recorded. 

The fusion of England, Scotland and Wales 
into the Commonwealth of Great Britain ap- 
pears perfectly natural, judged by the physical 



118 What Could Germany Do For Ireland? 

connection that unites all three countries, but 
no such connection joins Irel'and to any or all 
of these countries. 

The total area of Ireland (32,500 square 
miles) is 20,371,125 statute acres, of which 120,- 
329 acres are under water. In addition, some 
481,293 acres are under the large rivers, lakes 
and tideways of Ireland. The coastline is 
mountainous, indented with a multitude of natu- 
ral harbors, bays, creeks, etc. The interior of 
Ireland is, with few exceptions, practically a 
level plain of meadow and heathland. The soil 
of Ireland is fertile in the extreme — a fact well 
recognized by all authorities. Despite its north- 
erly situation, the climate of Ireland is mild and 
agreeable, caused in part by reason of the fact 
that its southerly and westerly shores are laved 
by the warm waters of the Gulf Stream. Ire- 
land's chief harbors on the south, west and 
north are Waterf ord, Dungarvan Bay, Youghal, 
Cork, Bantry Bay, Smerwick, Dingle Bay, Va- 
lentia, the Mouth of the Shannon (the largest 
river in the United Kingdom), Galway Bay, 
Clifden, Clew, Blacksod and Sligo Bays, Lough 
Swilly and Lough Foyle. All of those are, deep. 



The Gateway of Europe 119 

natural harbors and afford safe anchorage for 
shipping. Some of them, particularly Cork 
Harbor, Bantry Bay, Galway Bay, Blacksod 
Bay and Lough S willy, are so wide and deep 
and so easy of access that a mighty fleet can ride 
with safety on their expansive land-locked 
waters. 

The European-Asiatic continent has at its ex- 
..tremities countries whose strategical impor- 
tance is recognized by all authorities on naval 
and military matters. These are Korea on the 
east and Ireland on the west. It is considered 
vital to the future growth and development as 
a first-class world power of the Japanese Em- 
pire that Korea should remain under the domi- 
nation of the Mikado. Ireland is even of more 
vital importance strategically to England than 
Korea is to Japan. The occupation of Ireland 
by a world power, such as Germany, and its con- 
version into a naval and military base, would 
bring about speedily the downfall for all time of 
England from the rank and status of a first- 
class world power. That such would be the con- 
sequence to England of Ireland's passing into 
the hands of some other great power cannot be 



120 What Could Germany Do For Ireland? 

disputed. England would be flanked on her 
western side, but not merely that alone. Did 
Germany possess Ireland today, England would 
be enclosed and her situation would be hopeless 
in the extreme. 

The present war has demonstrated, in a man- 
ner never before so clearly recognized, the im- 
portance of Ireland's strategical situation in 
the event of an outbreak of European hostil- 
ities. By reason of the disposition of her nu- 
merically superior fleet, England (in the Eng- 
lish Channel and the North Sea) has been able 
to arrest all sea-borne traffic intended for Ger- 
many. On the other hand, Germany has been 
able to inflict serious damage on English ship- 
ping by her submarine warfare waged from off 
the coast of Ireland. The destroyed tonnage is 
conceded to be an amount of 640,000 tons dis- 
placement, which, at an average present value 
of $150 per ton, means a loss of nearly a billion 
dollars in vessel values, to say nothing of the 
loss of the cargoes. The largest number of 
English vessels destroyed in the present war 
were torpedoed and sunk by German under- 



The Gateway of Europe 121 

water craft operating off the south, west and 
north coasts of Ireland. 

What are the geographical conditions that 
mark out Ireland ^s situation on the globe as of 
such high strategical importance! Let us ex- 
amine this question from the English point of 
view first. The history of England in its rela- 
tion to Ireland clearly teaches that English pol- 
icy in regard to Ireland has always been di- 
rected towards keeping Ireland under British 
dominion, and at the same time to bring about 
an economic situation in Ireland that would 
keep Ireland weak and dependent upon England 
in all matters affecting her existence. In Henry 
VIII. 's view, *^ Ireland as a subject or indepen- 
dent ally of a Continental power would menace 
the existence of England.'^ English statesmen 
of all generations were and are still largely ob- 
sessed with the idea that Ireland can never be 
a neutral country, and that the passing of Ire- 
land out of the control of England and into the 
hands of another European power would mean 
that in the event of war in Europe in which 
England happened to be engaged, the loss of 
Ireland would weigh with double effect against 



122 What Could Germany Do For Ireland? 

England. The ruling classes in England have 
always and do still believe that Ireland, owing 
to her situation and physical formation, will 
ever be subject to some one power or another, 
and that she must always remain in vassalage to 
that power who succeeds in wresting the su- 
premacy of the seas from England. To accede 
to Ireland's demand for autonomous govern- 
ment would mean, in their opinion, that England 
would of necessity have to re-conquer Ireland 
in the event of European hostilities. 

It is only necessary to make a cursory survey 
of an outline map of Ireland to realize that her 
coastline is among the least defensible in 
Europe, and that it has been so shaped by the 
forces of nature, operating through countless 
ages, as to be most exposed and vulnerable to 
invasion, particularly along her south, west and 
north shores. This weakness of the country — 
her insular position — invites attack from any 
and every nation aspiring to sea power. In 
addition, Ireland possesses some of the best and 
safest naval harbors in the world, where abun- 
dant refuge may be obtained at all seasons — a 
fact not unknown to the German Admiralty as 



The Gateway of Europe 123 

well as to England. These harbors offer an al- 
most irresistible temptation, an invaluable 
prize to the power that desires to possess and 
retain mastery of the high seas. Furthermore, 
on her eastern shore Ireland is not distant from 
England at any one point more than 60 miles, 
whilst she is, at one point, only 13 miles distant 
from Scotland. The internal communications 
in Ireland, her roads, railways, telegraphs, etc., 
are such that in the hands of an invading force 
they could be rendered of prime importance for 
transport and other civil and military require- 
ments. Again, none are so well aware as the 
British authorities that Ireland lies right across 
England's doorstep and that Ireland flanks both 
routes to the Atlantic. It is the knowledge of 
these facts, and also of the potential resources 
of the country, that has influenced and guided 
England in her dealings with Ireland all 
through the last 700 years. Such knowledge 
has also been possessed by the world's greatest 
military genius, Napoleon, whose lasting regret 
was that he had not invaded Ireland and left 
Egypt and India out of his calculations at the 
start of his marvelous career. Napoleon's con- 



124 What Could Germany Do For Ireland? 

cept of Ireland's part in world affairs was dif- 
ferent from that of the English. He has left it 

on record that it would not be to the interest of 
j 

France to make Ireland a subject state. He 
stated that if called upon **to choose between 
Ireland independent and Ireland dependent 
upon an oligarchy in England, ' ' there could be 
no hesitation in his choice. His genius for mili- 
tary matters enabled him to see clearly that 
**the windward position of Ireland and its 
ports, like the chosen spot for the frontier 
ports, or a frontier fortress, points her out to 
be the barrier for the peace of Europe." 
**But," he added, *^to render Ireland impreg- 
nable to the ambition of an English oligarchy 
she must be strengthened internally and to her 
utmost capacity. How can she be so strength- 
ened? Never by being subject to the provincial 
government of any nation." To demonstrate 
fully France's belief in the strategical impor- 
tance of Ireland it must be remembered that on 
three different occasions she sent naval and 
military expeditions to Ireland to wrest that 
country from the yoke of England. When en- 
trusting to General Hoche, in 1796, command of 



The Gateway of Europe 125 

the forces appointed to make a landing in Ire- 
land, the French Directory of that day stated 
that the practical result to be gained from the 
successful issue of the enterprise was **to de- 
tach Ireland from England; that is, to reduce 
the latter to the position of being no longer 
more than a second-rate power, is to deprive her 
of a great part of her superiority on all the 
seas." Spain, too, in the days of her greatness, 
recognized to the full the source of strength 
and protection which Ireland's situation is to 
England, and despatched naval and military aid 
to the unconquered Irish who battled in Ireland 
for possession of their own land. 

The present war has also disclosed the im- 
portance of controlling the North Sea. The 
food and military requirements of the Channel 
powers can be arrested effectually by the power 
that masters the approaches to the North Sea. 
England, by reason of her location and also by 
reason of her superior naval strength, has suc- 
ceeded in blockading effectually the routes from 
the Atlantic to German North Sea ports, whilst 
at the same time securing for herself practically 
unrestricted commerce with the outer and neu- 



126 What Could Germany Do For Ireland? 

tral world. But it must be placed on record 
tliat Germany's use of the Irish coast for sub- 
marine warfare on British shipping has ham- 
pered to some extent England's freedom of the 
seas, and at the same time has inflicted moral 
damage on England's much vaunted reputation 
as Mistress of the Seas. 

England's peril, it must not be forgotten, is 
not so much invasion as starvation. She has 
become almost exclusively a manufacturing 
community. Agriculture has been so neglected 
in England that her people are mainly depen- 
dent upon Ireland, Denmark and America for 
the great bulk of their food requirements. Eng- 
land, enclosed between a hostile Ireland and a 
hostile European power, such as Germany, 
would be in a position of grave peril as regards 
her food supplies. All avenues of approach to 
her shores by sea would be cut off and her in- 
sular position and deficiency of home-raised 
foodstuffs would render a protracted resistance 
on her part highly improbable. This is Eng- 
land's most vulnerable point, and her continued 
occupation of Ireland alone saves her from such 
a plight. Indisputably Ireland is the gateway 



The Gateway of Europe 127 

of Europe, but she is also the keystone of Brit- 
ish power and dominion on the high seas of the 
world. When Ireland passes out of English 
possession the sun will have set forever on the 
British Empire. 



CHAPTER VII 

IRISH AGRICULTUEAL PROSPECTS 

Great Britain, holding the ear of the world, has 
convinced investors and historians that Ireland 
is only suited to agricultural pursuits and by 
nature can never be adapted into a manufactur- 
ing nation. So the government sanctions a De- 
partment of Agriculture and frowns on the 
proposition to create a Department of Indus- 
tries, lest factories might arise in the country. 

The cattle raised in Ireland must be brought 
across the sea to English slaughtering and 
packing houses. This Irish meat, when it comes 
from the abattoirs of England, is christened on 
the menu prime ** English beef." 

Despite the century-old effort of the govern- 
ing powers to confine Ireland to farming, they 
have likewise badly bungled the system of agri- 
culture throughout Ireland. Continuous crop- 
ping is almost unknown, and as a rule, winter 
dairying is not carried on to any important ex- 
tent. Such foodstuffs as are grown mostly have 

128 



Irish Agricultural Prospects 129 

to be exported, and the farmer is then compelled 
to buy inferior, imported foodstuffs, both for 
his family and cattle. Scientific farming, as we 
find it in Denmark, Holland, Belgium and Ger- 
many, is rarely found in any part of Ireland. 
There is a great migration of farm laborers to 
England in harvesting seasons. Americans will 
recall the Irish farm hands in England last sum- 
mer, who fled to the shores of this country for 
fear they would be drawn into the British army. 

The telephone that we see in nearly every 
farmhouse in Kansas and Nebraska, and in 
rural New York, is hardly seen in rural Ireland. 
Not one out of a hundred Irish farmers has 
seen motor-propelled farm machinery. There 
are not more than three or four agricultural 
credit banks in the country. The marketing and 
transporting, as well as the handling of prod- 
uce, is crude and antiquated. 

If our Irish farmers could but employ the 
German scientific methods of agriculture on as 
fruitful a soil, with its copious rains, as exists 
on earth ! The soil of Germany is poor indeed 
as compared with the rich and fertile soil of 
Erin, but it is in the special and scientific culti- 



130 What Could Germany Bo For Ireland? 

vation of the land that Germany excels. Noth- 
ing is wasted that human energy and invention 
can save. Within thirty years Germany, with- 
out increasing her acreage, has increased her 
yield of wheat 57 per cent., and other crops 
from 50 to 80 per cent. She has become the 
third agricultural country in the world. Irish 
potato growers will be interested to know that 
Germany leads the world in potatoes, and will 
have a €rop of at least 40,000,000 bushels this 
year. 

Although England has ordained that Ireland 
shall live and die an agricultural country, yet 
the people of Ireland depend on America for 
their daily bread, and have been so dependent 
for the past half-century. The wheat crop of 
Ireland will not furnish the people with a suf- 
ficient supply of bread to last six weeks. They 
had to buy $35,000,000 worth of wheat and flour 
last year, although the soil of Ireland raises as 
good wheat as is grown anywhere. Since the 
British union with Ireland, the wheat, rye, pea 
and bean crops have fallen to a mere fragment 
of its former enormous production. The linen 
industry was due to the fine quality of Irish flax 



Irish Agricultural Prospects 131 

cultivated in tlie soil. In 1851 there were 140,- 
536 acres devoted to flax; in 1913 the acreage 
had been reduced to 59,305. In consequence, the 
war blockade on flax imports has brought par- 
tial ruin to the Belfast linen industry. The im- 
portation of flax from Russia into Ireland has 
been shut out by the German blockade of the 
Baltic Sea. Flax could be grown in many parts 
of Ireland, but the farmers are without flax 
seed. Lack of preparation is notoriously a 
British characteristic, as the world has found. 
The loss of flax alone will lose Ireland $15,000,- 
000 this year. 

The cultivation of the sugar beet root, as well 
as hops and hemp, has been talked of in Ireland 
for twenty-five years, but has not gone beyond 
the experimental stage. In the year 1900 the 
writer was in Ireland, and in a printed paper 
urged the cultivation of the sugar beet and the 
aid of American capital in building a beet sugar 
factory. The Beet Sugar Association in Cali- 
fornia was interested, but nothing came of the 
agitation. The writer is of the opinion that the 
sugar-making industry in Ireland would sur- 
pass the flax and linen industry. Experiments 



132 What Could Germany Do For Ireland? 

made in Ireland have shown that with the neces- 
sary attention to proper cultivation, crops of 
sugar beet comparing favorably in yield with 
Continental crops can be grown in Ireland. For 
example, in spite of somewhat adverse weather 
conditions in 1912 and again in 1913, an average 
yield of over ten tons (factory weight) per stat- 
ute acre was obtained from demonstration 
plots in Ireland. Further, the sugar content of 
the roots was equally satisfactory, being 18.5 
per cent, and 18.2 per cent, in the respective 
years. In quality, purity, proportion of juice, 
and weight of yield, it has been shown that 
Irish-grown beet can equal, if not surpass, the 
great Continental sugar fields. The introduc- 
tion of beet cultivation and sugar refining into 
Ireland would revolutionize agriculture in Ire- 
land. The soil is capable of growing more roots 
per acre than Continental soil, and the per- 
centage of saccharine in Irish roots is greater 
than in roots grown abroad. Great Britain and 
Ireland are great sugar consumers. Therefore 
a home market is available ; freights would be 
saved. Eefining could be carried on at a lower 
cost than on the Continent, and coal, coke and 



Irish Agricultural Prospects 133 

limestone are cheaper and more available. Ger- 
man chemists, supported by a friendly gowem- 
ment and capital supplied by experienced Amer- 
ican beet sugar factory investors, would launch 
the sugar industry in Ireland. Germany leads 
the world in this industry, producing in the year 
1913 some 2,700,000 tons of beet sugar. Her 
success is due to chemistry and scientific, im- 
proved cultivation, and the invention of sugar 
producing and refining machinery. Take 
Waterf ord in Ireland, for instance, the constitu- 
ency of John Redmond. The beets could be 
grown on the lands adjoining the Rivers Suir, 
Nore and Barrow, and brought on barges to the 
factory at Waterf ord City. The pulp and waste 
produce could be returned to the farmers at the 
minimum of freight cost. Waterf ord, by sea 
and rail, could supply the important sugar dis- 
tributing centers in Ireland, and is within a few 
hours' steam of the English and other markets. 

In Germany during the past forty years im- 
proved processes have ** doubled the yield of 
sugar per pound of beets, while the the crop is 
50 per cent, greater in tonnage per acre." 

Transform the grazing lands into cultivated 



134 What Could Germany Do For Ireland? 

farms and break down the British policy of 
large ranches for raising cattle sent to England 
to be killed. The human beings of Ireland have 
been reduced from 8,500,000 to 4,000,000 in 
seventy years, but the lowing beasts of the 
fields have increased from 3,000,000 to 5,000,000 
head; likewise, sheep and poultry. Ireland is 
long on animals and short on men, women and 
children. 

The agricultural laborer in all countries is 
the poorest paid, but in Ireland we find a worse 
state for him than anywhere else. According to 
the official figures of the year 1914, the plow- 
man in Leinster and Connaught averages from 
$3.00 to $3.50 per week; in Ulster and Munster, 
from $3.50 to $4.00 per week; cattlemen, from 
$3.00 to $3.50 per week; farm laborers, from 
$2.65 to $3.50 per week. How a man can sup- 
port himself, to say nothing of his family, on 
less than $4.00 per week we leave for the Irish 
Agricultural Department to answer. 

Germany, with a poorer soil than Ireland, 
supports a vast population, with a wealth per 
capita for each farmer more than nine times 
as great as the wretched average of Ireland, de- 



Irish Agricultural Prospects 135 

spite the admitted benefits from the new land 
laws. 

The war has shut off the sale of Irish land 
scrip, and the high interest rate paid on war 
loan bonds are attractive to investors and kill 
off all hope of investment in the land stock of 
the Irish Government. And all this loan for the 
purchase of land will have to be returned to 
the government, mostly from the lean years that 
will follow the war. The wealth of the island 
is in the hands of others than natives, and a 
few hundred foreigners own nearly 40 per cent, 
of the country. 

In Germany 98 per cent, of the wealth of the 
empire is owned by the middle and humble 
classes, and scarcely 2 per cent, is controlled by 
the rich. She has 5,500,000 farmers, 3,000,000 
of whom occupy small farms of 5 or 10 acres, 
and make them pay. For agriculture she has 
250 training schools, eight agricultural colleges, 
attended by 15,000 students, and there are 4,500 
night schools instructing scholars in agricul- 
ture. 

"When England announced that her fleet in 
the Pacific Ocean had shortened the war by tak- 



136 What Could Germany Bo For Ireland? 

ing away from Germany the Chilian supply of 
nitrate, which makes gunpowder, the German 
students produced nitrogen from atmospheric 
moisture, and confounded their enemies. 

Among the farmers of Germany there are 
16,000 savings and loan associations, 3,500 dairy 
associations, 2,500 purchasing societies, and 
3,000 other societies devoted to farmers, accord- 
ing to P. Koster, M.E., who adds : 

These societies assist the farmer in every possible 
way, technically, in disseminating knowledge of all 
kinds; commercially, in purchasing Ms supplies, in 
lending him money on his growing crops and other- 
wise, in taking his products off his hands as rapidly 
as they are ready for market, in marketing them, in 
manufacturing them into higher forms, in disposing 
of by-products ; and sociologically, in improving his 
opportunities for recreation and advancement in all 
ways. 

They are all mostly of a co-operative nature and 
the middleman being eliminated, they secure for the 
farmer the most for his money and the most money 
for his crops, as they not only pay him the full prices 
to which he is entitled, but if profits accrue, from 
whatever activities, they are distributed in the form 
of dividends. 

Such societies and organizations enable the far- 
mers in a neighborhood to purchase expensive machin- 
ery, such as electric plows and harvesting and thresh- 
ing machinery. Such machinery is used in common 
and thus, at the lowest possible expense, the greatest 
possible results are accomplished. Electric plowing, 



Irish Agricultural Prospects 137 

which means plowing on a large scale cheaply, has 
been a feature of German agriculture for fifteen years, 
but no electric plow has yet turned a furrow in the 
United States. 

The use of power machinery is further encouraged 
by certain societies and by the government by the 
erection of power plants utilizing waterfalls. Cur- 
rent so generated is distributed over wide areas and 
sold cheaply, and if any profit is made, dividends are 
paid to the members of the association. Farmers thus 
have their power, light and heat at cost when within 
reach of such a plant. This is a great advantage and 
enables crops to be produced with the minimum of 
expense. 

This provision of cheap current enables the installa- 
tion of narrow-gauge tracks, which are very numer- 
ous on German farms, thus saving the farmer the 
great expense of hauling over roads to market. 

Note the position and size of Ireland on the 
map, only a few miles from every farm to a 
good harbor, if there were facilities of trans- 
portation and farming done in the most modern 
manner. 

I have spoken of the existence of so few agri- 
cultural banks in Ireland as an evidence of the 
lack of co-operative spirit so essential to all real 
modern success. The German farmer has elim- 
inated the money lender, the banking parasite, 
as well as the middlemen selling his products. 
Credit banks and selling associations have 



138 What Could Germany Do For Ireland? 

brought the profits direct to the associations. 
The English middlemen have been the curse of 
Irish farming for many years, as the English 
Government has seen to it that the island can- 
not have direct shipping to countries other than 
England. 

German science has found the means of suc- 
cessfully extracting nitrogen from the air, a 
discovery of infinite value to Ireland. The Ger- 
man system of agricultural co-operation, if in- 
troduced into Ireland, would soon double the 
farm wealth of that fertile land. In 1890 there 
were 3,006 of these German farm societies, 
which in 1914 had risen to 36,032 societies in the 
association called ^^Eeichsverbund.^' Their 
functions varied, but all were devoted to the in- 
terests of the farmer, both as producer and con- 
sumer. They included 17,000 societies to regu- 
late loans and savings. They did away with the 
middleman and the truck system by establishing 
clearing houses, making the farmer independent 
of banks and usurers. Eecently the U. S. Comp- 
troller of Currency pointed out the extortions 
practiced on cotton planters by certain Southern 
bankers. The German farmers buy their im- 



Irish Agricultural Prospects 139 

plements, feed, seed, fertilizer, etc., in vast 
quantities at a great saving through their pur- 
chasing societies. They get the best goods, 
properly inspected, for the least money. They 
have co-operative societies to sell their grain, 
milk, eggs and butter. In 1909 there were 119 
farmers' societies which were developing elec- 
tric power among their members, a thing un- 
known on Irish farms. 



CHAPTER VIII 

MEATS AND PKOVISIONS 

We have shown the wasteful and unscientific 
methods of conducting the live stock trade in 
Ireland. Travelers are amazed to note the ab- 
sence of slaughtering and packing houses in a 
country where cattle are so plentiful. 

We are told that Ireland should not worry 
over the lack of a dressed meat and provision 
business when she receives close on to $100,000,- 
000 per annum for the live stock she sells to 
England ; it matters not that cattle are fast dis- 
placing the human beings on the land. In 1851 
there were 3 persons in Ireland to every head 
of cattle. In 1913 there were more cattle in 
Ireland than human beings. The changes in 
this period involved the displacement of 100 
persons off every 1,000 acres of land in Ireland, 
to make room for 99 extra cattle and 76 addi- 
tional sheep. The British Government in its 
reports takes great credit for this displacement 
of people with animals. They do not apply the 
system of substituting animals for men* and 

140 



Meats and Provisions 141 

women in their own country. In England, for 
every 1,045 persons there are 156 head of cat- 
tle, while in Ireland for every 215 persons there 
are 242 head of cattle ; bnt we are told that this 
is an odious comparison, because England is 
mainly a manufacturing country, while Ireland 
is partly an agricultural country outside of the 
locality in and around Belfast. 

We shall see from the following official table, 
however, how the cattle raising traffic assists in 
the economic destruction of Ireland by forcing 
a serious decline in the rural population. 

Only as far back as 20 years nearly a million 
persons were engaged in Irish agriculture, as 
compared with 750,000 at the present time. The 
number of farm laborers has been reduced 62,- 
000 in 20 years, and notwithstanding the benefi- 
cent effects of the land acts, the farmers hold- 
ing between 1 and 30 acres have been reduced. 

This condition is brought about by the pass- 
ing of the land from the possession of the small 
owners into the cattle ranches, whose size in- 
creases from year to year. This situation is 
found to exist only in localities throughout the 
world where other industries are dead. 



142 What Could German^/ Do For Ireland^ 

About twelve and a half million acres of soil 
were devoted exclusively to cattle raising in 
1913. On these lands were five million head of 
cattle, of which 32 per cent, were milch cows 
and heifers in calf, whereas 60 years ago the 
proportion of milch cows to the total number of 
cattle was 45 per cent. This fearful neglect by 
the government of Ireland's dairying industry 
— the most profitable end of a live stock indus- 
try — deserves condemnation. While the dairy- 
ing industry is sacrificed for stock raising, the 
government encourages bounties and premiums 
for the export of live stock. The British meat 
supply must be conserved, regardless of any 
disastrous effect on the Irish neighbor. Men 
and women are employed about a dairy, but a 
herder and a dog are all the labor necessary for 
ranch cattle. This sacrifice of a country's re- 
sources is never tolerated in any part of Ger- 
many, where the farming industry, the most 
necessary, is developed for the common good. 
The low wages paid in the cattle industry tend 
to dispense with rural workers generally, and 
help to keep wages at a low level in the country 
districts. 



Meats and Provisions 143 

It appears that Ireland received close on to 
$32,000,000 for 355,000 fat cattle exported to 
England in the year 1913, whereas for the re- 
maining 755,000 cattle of other descriptions ex- 
ported she received only approximately $46,- 
000,000. It is evident, therefore, that had Ire- 
land's exports consisted of fat cattle exclu- 
sively, her cattle raisers would have received at 
least $20,000,000 per year more, or probably 
nearly $200,000,000 more in the last ten years. 
Ireland is not permitted to fatten the cattle she 
exports to England, and these unfinished cattle, 
which are fattened subsequently for slaughter- 
ing purposes, form the bulk of her live stock ex- 
ports annually. Thus the English have the more 
profitable end of the business. Cattle raisers in 
Ireland have to forget the fact that the frame 
of the beast is formed at the expense of the soil, 
and only when its growth is done and it has be- 
gun to form fat will it return to the soil the ma- 
nurial value of the food it consumes. Some of 
the richest soils in Meath and Limerick have 
been greatly depreciated in their fattening ca- 
pacity owing to this cause, and they are badly in 
need of that germane potash which has so won- 



144 What Could Germany Do For Ireland? 

dronsly replenished the soil of Germany. Thus 
we see the lean cattle producers suffering from 
this economic abuse, and the fertility of the soil 
depleted. Of course, such cattle shipped to 
England do not bring the price of good beef. 
All authorities are agreed that from the time 
the cattle are taken off the fields until they are 
actually slaughtered, a shrinkage takes place 
in their flesh in the transit. In the case of Irish 
cattle brought from a distant farm to market, 
then unloaded, thence shipped on a sea journey 
of several hours, and then unshipped at an Eng- 
lish port, consigned over rail again to the 
slaughter house for conversion into beef, it is 
evident that not only a loss in weight has oc- 
curred, but also a depreciation of quality, which 
results in Irish cattle bringing low prices on the 
English market. This depreciation in quality 
averages $5.00 per head, or a loss to Ireland of 
at least $5,000,000 per annum. In addition, the 
Irish producers lose the profits from the ma- 
nure, which is an important business; also the 
hides, hoofs, horns, intestines, blood, and every 
particle which is nowadays saved in the great 
packing houses. 



Meats and Provisions 145 

In Germany the cattle are invariably slaugh- 
tered at the most convenient location to where 
the animals are raised. These wasteful methods 
of disposing of cattle cost the people not less 
than $15,000,000 annually on the live cattle ex- 
ported from the country. In ten years' time 
that would be $150,000,000, and if saved, would 
have enabled the farmers to have acquired and 
paid for more land for dairying purposes. 

Take the great American and German slaugh- 
tering houses and put them in Ireland — ^there 
would be the end of the English dressed beef 
business, made out of Irish cattle. The pack- 
ing house industries would furnish badly needed 
employment in Ireland, and do not require a 
great amount of skilled labor. If the cattle were 
saved for Ireland, there would be a tanning in- 
dustry, converting the hides of cattle into 
leather. 

There was a day when Ireland had an impor- 
tant leather producing industry. You find the 
ruins there of hundreds of tanneries. There are 
not a dozen tanneries in the whole of Ireland 
today, and they are small and obsolete in their 
methods. If Ireland could adopt the German 



146 'What Could Germany Do For Ireland? 

system of abattoirs and tanneries in fixed lo- 
calities, with proper transportation, she would 
preserve her own meats, make her soups, and 
save the valuable by-products of this great in- 
dustry. 

There is ever present the ominous dangers of 
cattle diseases. The way the business is con- 
ducted leaves the cattle raiser helpless, or 
nearly so, at the outbreak of foot and mouth 
diseases, all of which attacks are met in Ger- 
many with the greatest skill, prompt remedies, 
and the narrowing of districts where the disease 
breaks out. One epidemic in Ireland a few 
years back cost the country some $50,000,000, 
and for years afterwards lowered the price of 
Irish cattle abroad. Competitors find it an easy 
matter, with an inefficient government failing 
to protect the industries of the island, to circu- 
late stories as to the bad quality of the Irish cat- 
tle subject to disease. The salvation of the 
cattle trade in Ireland lies in new economies, in 
a change of government, in the complete separa- 
tion of the island from English rule, and con- 
verting the business into a dressed meat indus- 
try, such as has been successfully done in Ger- 



Meats and Provisions 147 

many and the United States. This matter af- 
fects many classes throughout the country, and 
requires the firm hand of an independent gov- 
ernment to deal with it. The cattle traders of 
Ireland are financed by English dealers, and 
they will never consent to let them initiate pro- 
vision in packing houses. A free and firm gov- 
ernment can only bring this relief to Ireland 
and see that the business is conducted along 
co-operative lines. There are three or four 
small abattoirs in Ireland, but feeble affairs as 
compared with the great factories in Germany. 
Ireland is splendidly situated for the develop- 
ment of this great industry. Her pasture lands 
are among the best for fattening ; her cattle fed 
from her own land make as good beef as can be 
procured. The largest meat consuming mar- 
ket in Europe is at her doors. She needs free- 
dom, organization and capital, supported by a 
firm government, sworn and determined to do 
justice to all. Only in this way can she convert 
the present uneconomic and nationally danger- 
ous cattle traffic into an industry of great na- 
tional importance and immense value to the 
Irish nation. 



CHAPTER IX 

EECLAMATION AND EEFOKESTATION 

Lady Aberdeen of Scotland, wife of the ex- 
Governor-General of Ireland, during the early 
days of her husband's late administration of 
Irish affairs, ^* discovered '' that Ireland was 
afflicted with tuberculosis. Out of the fullness 
of her great heart, and to testify in a marked 
and public manner her great concern for the 
poor people of Ireland, **her ladyship'' forth- 
with proceeded to enlighten an otherwise ig- 
norant world of the declining state of health 
among the remnants of the Irish, and how very 
necessary it was that preventative action should 
be taken to check the ravages of the white 
plague in Ireland. America, in common with 
all other countries, was informed of this latest 
affliction that had befallen the poor people. To 
make assurance doubly sure. Lady Aberdeen 
widely advertised that the Irish laces offered 
for sale in her lace shop in Dublin (for **her 
ladyship," as is well known to the merchants 
and people of Dublin, is of a truly commercial 

148 



Reclamation and Reforestation 149 

disposition) were thoroughly disinfected before 
being sold at home or abroad. The unfortunate 
effect of this benevolent solicitude for the wel- 
fare of the poor Irish was that it ruined an- 
other Irish industry, and that, too, the one car- 
ried on in the homes of the cottiers all over the 
country. In support of this statement it is only 
necessary to quote the official returns of Ire- 
land's trade in laces during the period of Lord 
Aberdeen's late vice-royalty in Ireland. These 
returns tell us that in 1909 Ireland exported 
lace valued at $500,000. In 1913 Ireland's lace 
exports had fallen to $327,500, or a loss to the 
cottage lace-workers of Ireland, that year, of 
$172,500. A truly creditable achievement in the 
interest of the health of the Irish people I At 
the time that Lady Aberdeen made this wonder- 
ful discovery, her husband had in his posses- 
sion, in Dublin Castle, a report written to him, 
as head of the Irish Government of the day, 
dealing with the necessity for arterial drainage 
in Ireland, drawn up by a Eoyal Commission 
appointed by Lord Aberdeen's predecessor in 
office. Lord Dudley. This report, commenting 
on the prevalence of tuberculosis in the rural 



150 What Could Germany Do For Ireland? 

districts of Ireland, said, in effect, that arterial 
drainage would react favorably on the public 
health; there would be less pulmonary disease, 
less rheumatism, and less predisposition to dis- 
ease generally. But neither Lord Aberdeen nor 
the government he represented took any steps 
to put the findings of this or previous Eoyal 
Commissions on the same subject into effect, 
and accordingly it must be inferred that kind- 
hearted Lady Aberdeen failed to influence her 
husband to concern himself with the health of 
the native Irish. It is unquestioned that the 
undue prevalence of tuberculosis in Ireland is 
attributable in part to the dampness of the cli- 
mate of Ireland, and that raising the mean tem- 
perature of the country generally would result 
in better health among the people and eradicate 
to an appreciable extent the predisposition to 
contract disease that the Irish of today, to judge 
from Irish vital statistics, suffer from. 

Sir Eichard Griffith, in his ** Survey of Ire- 
land," compiled between the years 1809 and 
1814, estimated the area of waste land of 
all kinds — salt marshes, bogs, mountainous and 
upland wastes, dunes — to be 6,000,000 acres, 



Reclamation and Reforestation 151 

half, roughly, suitable for planting and half for 
reclamation for agriculture. Considering the 
utter neglect of the country since the British 
union, it is safe to say that the area of waste 
land in Ireland is now very much larger than 
it was at the time Sir R. Griffith made the sur- 
vey just referred to. Unlike most countries, 
Ireland's mountains are located in the maritime 
counties, leaving the interior flat and of low 
elevation. As a consequence, the rivers of Ire- 
land are sluggish, the fall being slight. An- 
other characteristic is the number and size of 
the lakes. Lough Neagh, covering 153 square 
miles, is the largest in the United Kingdom; 
the Fermanagh lakes are traversible for a 
length of 40 miles ; the lakes or expansions of 
the River Shannon (224 miles long) ; the chains 
of lakes in Connemara and Cavan, and finally, 
the widely known lakes of Killarney. There 
are the bogs of Ireland, distributed through 
every county and covering a seventh of the en- 
tire surface of the country. These act as 
mighty sponges filled with water, always send- 
ing up vapor. The humidity of Ireland is re- 
markable for a country so geographically situ- 



152 What Could Germany Do For Ireland? 

ated. This is due partly to the Gulf Stream, 
partly to the prevailing southwesterly winds 
that come over the Atlantic laden with moisture, 
and more especially to the great lodgment of 
water all over the country. In summertime the 
evaporation is excessive; the vapor constantly 
ascending from the midlands of Ireland forms 
clouds that diminish the amount of sunshine, 
affect vegetation and seriously impair the gen- 
eral health of the community. It is known to 
scientific agriculturists that the greater or less 
dryness of a soil influences the nature of the 
vegetation it tends to nourish. The presence 
of water affects the character of the natural 
vegetation, renders soil unfit for the cultivation 
of plants sprung from a dry situation, prevents 
the rays of the sun from warming the substance 
of the soil, and accordingly, retards vegetation. 
Dealing with the Irish aspect of this question, 
Sir R. Kane tells us that : 

The question of drainage becomes of very consider- 
able importance in relation to the lands of the lime- 
stone plain, in which, being situated at such moderate 
altitude, and with so gentle an inclination of surface, 
the rivers and lakes, on any considerable fall of rain, 
are apt to overflow their banks and, flooding con- 
siderable districts, destroy a serious amount of agri- 
cultural produce. 



Reclamation and Reforestation 153 

He tells us that the Shannon, above Lough 
Derg, flooded, at ordinary rises, 32,000 acres 
along its banks. One of the numerous Royal 
Commissions on this subject stated that **the 
upper portion of the catchment area of the 
River Barrow, extending down to Athy, con- 
tains an area of 408,000 acres, of which 46,000 
are flooded or injured by floods." In County 
Fermanagh a low estimate places the area in- 
jured by the flooding of the lakes at 12,000 acres. 
In a word, practically every river or lake of any 
dimensions in the country floods annually thou- 
sands of acres of cultivable soil in winter time, 
thus retarding tillage operations, and when 
such floo dings occur in summertime, the loss to 
the farming community and to the general pros- 
perity of the country is almost incalculable. It 
is demonstrated that arterial drainage is a vital 
necessity in a country like Ireland. Let us see 
what the British Governors of the country have 
accomplished towards that end. In the Allport 
Commission of 1887 the following indictment of 
British administration in Ireland is to be found. 
The Dudley Commission of a few years back 
fully endorses this finding: 



154 What Could Germany Do For Ireland? 

There is no system in Ireland for the conservancy 
of rivers, nor any department of government charged 
with the subject, and in many cases where the proper 
regulation of a river is a matter of public concern, 
it is under the control of no one, and is often ob- 
structed and neglected. We find drainage districts 
formed without any regard to the interests of the 
larger river basins in which they lie, and so arranged 
as to escape their share of what should be a common 
responsibility. On the other hand, the boundaries of 
such districts are often so arranged as to impose on 
their promoters responsibility which ought to be 
shared by others, and to force these promoters to con- 
fer benefits on their neighbors towards the cost of 
which the latter contribute nothing, (Here follows 
an elaborated description of other anomalies existing 
in Ireland. The conclusion arrived at was:) Some 
of these evils arise from the changes of policy during 
the operation of the Act of 1842, but for the most of 
them, the present system must he held responsible. 

The Dudley Commission endorsed the AUport 
Commission's observations on the River Bar- 
row district, and added: ^* Altogether, the con- 
dition of this district may be described as de- 
plorable/' Asking what was done in the inter- 
val between the two commissions that were ap- 
pointed to deal with the problem, the Dudley 
Commissioners answered their own question in 
the following passage : 

Nothing, save the making of surveys, maps, plans, 
and estimates, has yet been done either by the State 
or by any combination of owners towards the curing 
or even the mitigation of the evils complained of, 



Reclamation and Reforestation 155 

whilst we had abundant testimony that the flooding 
and the subsequent injury are growing greater year 
by year. The case of the River Bann differs from 
others in Ireland, once similarly circumstanced, in 
that no expenditure by the State has ever taken place, 
although the task of clearing the main outfall is mani- 
festly beyond the reach of private enterprise. 

How serious the condition of the country 
when these two British boards were compelled 
to report as they did ! If the English Govern- 
ment has done nothing for the arterial drainage 
of the country, it is consoling to know that pri- 
vate enterprise in Ireland has alleviated some- 
what the condition of things. Also, this failure 
of England to mitigate the evils of inundation, 
etc., is in marked contrast to the policy and ac- 
tions of the Irish Parliament in pre-union days, 
which passed acts and provided money ^^to en- 
courage the draining and improvement of the 
Logs," and thus attempted in a statesmanlike 
manner to discharge a national duty. Reclama- 
tion as a public work in Ireland has, notwith- 
standing all the blundering and difficulties in 
the way, proved remunerative. To reclaim a 
million acres would cost, roughly, $50,000,000. 
From such an expenditure a considerable re- 
turn might be expected. Also, such work would 



156 What Could Germany Bo For Ireland? 

facilitate and improve tillage, would give em- 
ployment, would increase the value of the land, 
and by raising the mean temperature of the 
country would contribute powerfully towards 
improving the general health of the race. One 
has only to look across at the Continent of 
Europe to see the transformation effected there 
by scientifically directed reclamation. Holland, 
now one of the richest agricultural countries in 
the world, much smaller than Ireland, consists 
largely of reclaimed land, much of which has 
been carried out at enormous expense and with 
great daring, such as pumping out lakes and 
seas. The transformation of Lake Haarlen into 
45,000 acres of meadowland was a work that 
cost $100 per acre, but the government sold the 
land to tillers at that figure. Holland* has ex- 
pended close upon $1,500,000,000 on reclamation 
work ; France has spent $140,000,000 ; Hungary 
some $1,100,000,000; Austria some $1,000,000,- 
000; Belgium some $80,000,000. In Germany, 
immense stretches of waste-land have been 

*England has narrowed down the exports of Ireland to 
countries, outside of England, so that the total direct oversea 
trade of the island is hardly $7,000,000, or about $2 per capita. 
The foreign trade of Holland, hardly one-third the area of 
Ireland, with countries other than England equals $60 per 
capita or thirty times as great as that of Ireland. 



Reclamation and Reforestation 157 

brought into tillage, and it is stated that the 
area of land given over to grain cultivation has 
been doubled in the past forty years by these 
methods. Reviewing the progress made by all 
these nations within recent years, it cannot be 
disputed that their respective governments had 
the best interests of their countries at heart in 
undertaking, at the public expense, reclamation 
works of the character indicated, which is now 
being done in America. Each of those govern- 
ments was actuated by the belief that in im- 
proving the soil of the country they conferred 
an advantage on every interest in the country; 
they assisted agriculture, and by improving the 
waterways of the country they contributed ma- 
terially to the development of traffic. It will 
not be disputed that principles common to all 
progressive countries on the Continent may be 
adapted to Irish circumstances, and with every 
possibility of equal, if not, indeed, greater, 
success in their practical application. No coun- 
try in Europe so sadly needs reclamation as 
Ireland, and it must be the first concern of an 
Irish Government to undertake such work for 
the ultimate benefit of the land. 



158 What Could Germany Do For Ireland? 

Side by side with this work, and, indeed, as 
part of it, the re-afforesting of Ireland must 
likewise be undertaken. Ireland was so covered 
with timber at one period of her history as to 
be known by the name of ^* The Isle of Woods." 
Her peat resources attest to this fact today. 
Yet no country in Europe is at the present mo- 
ment so bare of trees, and no country could be 
so benefitted by sylviculture as Ireland. Such 
work would not alone give immediate employ- 
ment to thousands of workers, but would ulti- 
mately prove profitable to the whole country. 
The late Professor W. K. Sullivan, President of 
University College, Cork, in 1855 urged the 
English Government to plant the mountainsides 
of the country, but his advice was not heeded. 
At the same time a Danish forest conservator, 
after a survey of Ireland, stated: *^I think the 
question of planting Ireland is one of vast im- 
portance to that country, and that instead of 
having five millions of people (since reduced to 
almost four), she ought to have five and 
twenty. ' ' In India the British Government car- 
ried out a different policy, and the State For- 
ests there today cover an area of 250,000 square 



Reclamation and Reforestation 159 

miles. The Irish Parliament, before its absorp- 
tion into that of England, granted bounties to 
promote tree cultivation throughout Ireland. 
When the union became a fait accompli, the 
bounties and tree propagation were discon- 
tinued by the British Parliament. Unquestion- 
ably the British Government is largely liable 
for the deforesting of Ireland. Lord Castle- 
town, President of the Irish Forestry Society, 
has stated that there is a purely Irish fund of 
about $150,000 a year **quit rents" sent over 
from Ireland to enrich the woods and forest de- 
partment in England. A reminder of the finan- 
cial plunder of Ireland on which the mighty 
British Empire has been upbuilt ! 

There are upwards of 2,000,000 acres of land 
in Ireland serving no economic purpose that 
are admirably suited for planting. Indeed, for- 
estry is one of the most important directions in 
which the state can increase the wealth of Ire- 
land. All the waste-land in Ireland is capable 
of growing one kind or another of timber. In 
this respect a Director of Forests, under an 
Irish Parliament, would have the experience of 
forest conservators all over Europe to guide 



160 What Could Germany Do For Ireland^ 

him as to the description of plants to be culti- 
vated in the different districts and soils of Ire- 
land. The story of the reclamation of Les 
Landes in France since 1850 is one that any 
people might feel justly proud of, where a dis- 
trict comprising close on 2,000,000 acres of un- 
cultivated, uninhabited waste has been con- 
verted into one of the most wealthy and pros- 
perous in the whole of France. The Director 
of an Irish Department of Forests will find con- 
siderable information and guidance in a study 
of this brilliant exploit of the French people. 
Eoundly speaking, the value of the forests of 
Les Landes to France today would approximate 
$60,000,000. The story of Germany in this re- 
spect is even brighter still. In aU Germany to- 
day there are some 35,000,000 acres of forest 
land, of which the various states own some 11,- 
000,000 acres, whilst the towns and communes 
own close on 6,000,000 acres. Prussia owns 
over 1,000,000 acres of forest, from which she 
derives more than 100,000,000 marks net every 
year, which goes towards lessening taxation. 
From a publication issued from the Department 
of Agriculture, "Washington, the following is 



Reclamation and Reforestation 161 

taken, as it deals with the German forestry sys- 
tem: 

Forest experts of all nationalities agree that Ger- 
many is in an enviable position as regards her lum- 
ber supply. No nation in the world makes more 
thorough utilization of its forest resources. German 
forestry is remarkable in three ways : It has always 
led in scientific thoroughness, and now it is working 
out results with an exactness almost equal to that of 
the laboratory; it has applied this scientific knowl- 
edge with the greatest technical success; and it has 
solved the problem of securing, through a long series 
of years, an increasing forest output, and increasing 
profits at the same time. Starting with forests that 
were in as bad shape as many of our own cut-over 
areas, Germany raised the average yield of wood per 
acre from 20 cubic feet in 1830 to 75 cubic feet in 
1908. During the same period it trebled the propor- 
tion of saw timber secured from the average cut, 
which means, in other words, that through the prac- 
tice of forestry the timberlands of Germany are of 
three times better quality today than when no system 
was used. In a little over half a century it increased 
the money returns from an average acre of forest 
sevenfold, and today the forests are in better condi- 
tion than ever before. 

Truly, Germany could teach Ireland many 
useful lessons as to tree culture. Let us see 
how Ireland stands in this matter, as compared 
with the other parts of the so-called United 
Kingdom. Of the total area of Ireland less than 
1.5 per cent, is under woods. In England they 



162 What Could Germany Do For Ireland? 

form 5.3 per cent. ; in Scotland, 4.5 per cent., and 
in Wales, 3.9 per cent, of the total areas. Here 
we find Ireland again treated differently from 
each of the other countries in the Union. In 
1880 there were 339,858 statute acres under 
woods and plantations in Ireland. In 1913 there 
were only 297,809 acres returned as being under 
woods, etc. Right down through the years a 
continuous diminution of the area planted in 
Ireland has taken place. In 1913 close upon 
600,000 trees were felled in Ireland, represent- 
ing an area of close on 1,500 acres. As against 
this clearance, only some 1,150 acres were 
planted. And there is no authority to prevent 
further felling, or to insist upon planting two 
or more trees for each one felled. The great 
bulk of the timber felled each year in Ireland is 
exported in the rough to England, where it is 
largely used for mining purposes. Ireland re- 
ceives, on an average, each year for the timber 
she exports $1,250,000. As against this, she im- 
ports timber and manufactures thereof to the 
estimated annual value of close on $9,000,000. 
In addition to this amount, furniture to the an- 
nual value of $2,500,000 is also imported into 



Reclamation and Reforestation 163 

the country. That is to say, Ireland at present 
exports the raw material, timber, and subse- 
quently imports it in manufactured products. 
A truly wasteful and uneconomic procedure ! It 
is inconceivable that Ireland, under any other 
form of government than that under which she 
groans today, would continue conducting her 
economic affairs along such destructive lines. 
An examination into the ages of the woods now 
standing in Ireland shows that there has been 
a considerable, nay, a serious, falling off in 
planting in the past twenty-five years, and that 
it is inevitable that a shortage of timber must 
occur in the next half-century if the present 
rate of felling be maintained. In its own in- 
terest Ireland must recover its forest area. To 
plant the entire area of some 4,000,000 acres 
would cost not more than $100,000,000, and the 
undertaking would be profitable commercially. 
The calculation on which this is based takes no 
account of the element in developing industries 
connected with forest cultivation, of which 
both Germany and France are such inspiring 
models. The wealth of both these countries de- 
rived from industries carried on in connection 
with and arising out of their respective forests 



164 What Could Germany Do For Ireland? 

is practically incalculable. But scientific for- 
estry carried out on a national scale would have 
other beneficial effects on Ireland. Were the 
western coast of Ireland planted with a shelter 
belt of timber, it would protect the lands from 
the violence of Atlantic storms, which carry 
with them inland many ingredients injurious to 
agricultural produce. The planting of moun- 
tains would tend to equalize the rainfall and 
temperature, and would prevent upland soils 
being washed away by torrents, thus preventing 
rivers being silted up and lowlands flooded, as 
so frequently happens, with highly injurious ef- 
fects to cultivation. Plantations along river 
banks would encourage increase in fish by 
reason of the shade afforded, the steady supply 
of water thus promoted, and the food they bring 
for the sustenance of trout and salmon fry. 
Forest game could be propagated and the state 
derive rent from such preserves. Then, again, 
the waste-lands so planted would, in the course 
of time, and by reason of the falling leaves, be- 
come enriched and their grazing would thus be- 
come another source of revenue to the state. 
The greatest value of all to the state would be 
the timber so planted and its by-products (bark, 



Reclamation and Reforestation 165 

charcoal, leaves, fallen timber, resin, pitch, 
turpentine, etc.), the immediate agricultural 
products, and the series of wood-working indus- 
tries, including basket-making from osiers, for 
the growing of which both the soil and climate 
of Ireland are admirably adapted, and which 
would bring a return in three years and pro- 
vide large, constant and remunerative employ- 
ment in rural districts. The manufacture of 
paper from wood pulp could also be undertaken. 
Such a policy, when put into effect by a national 
government in Ireland, will work untold good 
for the whole community and will remove the 
reproach contained in the following only too 
accurate description of the physical appearance 
of the Irish countryside of Sir R. Kane's day 
and ours: 

There is no feature of an Irish landscape more 
characteristic than the desert baldness of our hills, 
which, robbed of those sylvan honors that elsewhere 
diversify a rural prospect, present to every eye a type 
of the desolation which has overspread the land. 

In the scientifically planned and nationally 
conducted reclamation and afforestation of Ire- 
land the future Irish State will find ample 
wealth to promote the industrial development 
of the entire country. 



CHAPTER X 

PORTLAND CEMENT MILLS 

We find vast deposits of limestone in many 
parts of Ireland. There is little timber and the 
houses are built of limestone. There are fine 
marble beds, black marble, pure white near 
Connemara, and Cork County contains various 
colored marbles. Over the vast area of this 
limestone formation, close to the best harbors, 
the opportunity for mills making portland 
cement are many. 

In the old days of sailing vessels limestone 
was largely exported from Ireland. There is 
one very small portland cement mill at Wex- 
ford. The Department of Agriculture has 
frowned on the making of cement in great mills 
in Ireland, as they have the material to make it 
cheaper, and that competition would hurt the 
British cement industry. A mill, such as the 
Universal or the Atlas of the United States, 
turning out 50,000 to 75,000 barrels of cement 
a day, would be welcomed in Ireland, but Eng- 
land would never tolerate the invasion. Cement 

i66 



Portland Cement Mills 167 

mills located near unused coal lands and low 
railway service would employ 50,000 hands and 
support 400,000 people. The railroads in Ire- 
land are controlled by the same capitalists who 
own the railroads of England, and they would 
not be inclined to favor industries whose devel- 
opment might tend to reduce dividends on the 
English railways. With German aid, we should 
hope to see the railroads in the hands of the 
Irish National Government. 

The Wolf hill Colliery, Queen's County, is 
favorably situated for the successful manufac- 
ture of cement, inasmuch as it is adjacent to 
the Barrow navigation, which runs south to 
Waterford, through Kidare, Carlow, Kilkenny 
and Wexford; thence the cement could be 
carried up the River Suir navigation to Clon- 
mel in Tipperary. From Athy north, the Grand 
Canal connects with Dublin on the east and the 
River Shannon on the west, whence traffic is 
carried over the latter navigation to Limerick 
on the southwest and Carrick-on-Shannon in 
County Leitrim. It would seem that portland 
cement manufactories established at Cork, Athy 
and Belfast would be capable of meeting 



168 What Could Germany Do For Ireland^ 

the domestic demand in Ireland for cement, and 
at the same time snpply the mnch larger exter- 
nal market in neighboring countries. With 
modern, well-maintained plants, cement manu- 
factories in these places would be successful. 
Ireland, therefore, not only possesses abun- 
dance of suitable cement-making materials, but 
such materials are conveniently placed, and are 
of such a nature as to admit of manufacture by 
the most economical methods as regards fuel 
consumption. Indeed, with the due and proper 
development of coal mining in Ireland, and with 
the proper and scientific treatment of her peat 
resources, Ireland will be more than favorably 
situated for the manufacture of this commodity, 
the possibilities of which are but now being 
realized by engineers the world over. 

There are but two small factories in Ireland 
for converting limestone into calcium carbide, 
from which acetylene gas is generated. Many 
of the English and Scotch carbide factories 
draw their limestone supplies from Ireland. 
Under scientific direction there is certain to be 
a future for the development of this industry 
in Ireland. 



CHAPTER XI 

POWER AND FUEL 

PowEE and fuel play so important a part in all 
industrial effort that at the risk of being weari- 
some, we continue to refer to these all-impor- 
tant factors. 

In dealing with Ireland it is of vital impor- 
tance to ascertain accurately the extent to which 
both power and fuel are available for industrial 
purposes. English writers argue that Ireland's 
deficiency in both these forces is mainly re- 
sponsible for her present backward industrial 
condition, and they have advanced this as a 
reason to justify English economic policy in 
regard to Ireland. The possession of coal and 
iron is the chief source of England's indus- 
trial pre-eminence. Englishmen have come to 
believe that countries not possessing coal or 
iron cannot become manufacturing nations. It 
is only necessary to look across at Europe to 
see that such a contention cannot and does not 
hold good. Belgium, Holland and Switzerland 

169 



170 What Could Germany Do For Ireland? 

are countries smaller in area and with fewer 
natural resources than Ireland. It will not be 
disputed that all of those countries have pros- 
pered exceedingly as manufacturing nations 
within recent years, although Belgium is with- 
out iron and neither Holland nor Switzerland 
possesses coal; and of the three, Switzerland is 
the least favorably situated for the development 
of industrial greatness, inasmuch as she has no 
seaports. 
It has been written of Switzerland : 

With an ungrateful soil, a scattered population of 
3,000,000 souls, a limited amount of capital, no sea- 
ports, no coal, Switzerland has risen to an eminent 
position among manufacturing nations, and sends 
products worth $150,000,000 yearly to France, Eng- 
land, Germany and Belgium. 

Laboring under such disadvantages, why 
have the Swiss progressed as a manufacturing 
people? The answer lies in the fact that they 
have turned to advantage, for manufacturing 
purposes, the numerous rivers and waterfalls 
of their country. In 1898 there were 1,570 mills 
worked by water, representing 54,000 water- 
power, while steam-power used by factories 
represented less than 30,000 horsepower. We 



Power and Fuel 171 

see, therefore, that the possession of either coal 
or iron, or both, is not absolutely essential to 
promote successfully the industrial develop- 
ment of a country. 

England, influenced by her coal interests, has 
maintained that Ireland does not possess either 
coal or iron in paying quantities. That Ireland 
does possess rich coal and iron resources, we 
intend proving later in this work. "What the 
writer is concerned with just now is to examine 
Ireland's power resources and to ascertain 
whether she has that within herself which would 
justify her embarking upon an industrial career. 
We have seen that Switzerland has built up her 
industrial prosperity with the aid of her water- 
power. Has Ireland water-power in sufficient 
quantity to enable her to compete successfully 
with those manufacturing nations, such as Eng- 
land, where steam-power is mainly employed? 

When in Ireland, nothing so impressed the 
writer as the vast quantity of water rushing, 
unchecked, to the sea, with scarce a fraction of 
it employed for industrial purposes. And yet, 
practically all over the country, even in the most 
out-of-the-way places, one comes upon the ruins 



172 What Could Germany Do For Ireland? 

of mills which formerly were worked by water- 
power, showing that at one period the Irish 
people utilized the now neglected water-power 
of the numerous rivers. 

The average quantity of rain that falls over 
the entire surface of Ireland has been computed 
at 36 inches. The area of Ireland we know to 
be more than 32,000 square miles. From a cal- 
culation of the area and the rainfall we ascer- 
tain that over 100,000,000,000 cubic yards of 
water are precipitated on the island every year. 
All this mass of water, however, does not find 
its way to the sea. A large portion goes back 
in vapor to the atmosphere, and it may safely 
be assumed that 12 inches finally arrive at the 
sea. This, in its course to the sea, becomes 
available for industrial purposes, with a force 
proportional to the height through which it 
falls. Dealing with the subject in his masterly 
work on ''The Industrial Eesources of Ire- 
land, ' ' upon which has been freely drawn in this 
chapter. Sir R. Kane said : 

By calculations founded on such principles, we ar- 
rive at the conclusion that the average elevation of 
the surface of the country being 387 feet, the water 
which flows in our rivers to the sea has an average fall 



Power and Fuel 173 

of 129 yards, and now finally, we may calculate the 
total water-power of Ireland. We had for the total 
quantity of rain falling in a year 100,712,031,640 
cubic yards ; of this, one-third flows into the sea ; that 
is, 33,237,343,880 cubic yards, weighing 68,467,100 
tons. This weight falls from 129 yards, and as 884 
tons falling twenty-four feet in twenty-four hours is 
a horsepower, the final result is that in average we 
possess, distributed over the surface of Ireland, a 
water-power capable of acting night and day, without 
interruption, from the beginning to the end of the 
year, and estimated at the force of 3,227 horsepower 
per foot of fall, for the entire average fall of 387 feet, 
amounting to 1,248,849 horsepower. But mechanical 
power is never thus unintermittingly driven, and if 
we reduce this force to the year's work of 300 work- 
ing days, of twelve hours each, we find it to repre- 
sent 3,038,865 horsepower; that is, more than three 
millions of horsepower. ... It may be consid- 
ered as decisively established that there is derivable 
from water-power in Ireland, of which I have here 
noticed only one source, an amount of mechanical 
force sufficient for the development of our industry 
on the greatest scale. 

It has been ascertained that it requires the 
drainage of just ten square miles of country 
to give water for an average horsepower per 
foot of fall, and on this basis the power capable 
of application from individual rivers may be 
ascertained. Mention has previously been made 
of Ireland's numerous and expansive rivers. 
The Shannon, 224 miles long, we know to be the 



174 What Could Germany Do For Ireland? 

largest river in Great Britain and Ireland. It 
is navigable practically to its source. Its catch- 
ment area is spread over 3,600 square miles of 
country. At its source it is only 146 feet above 
sea level, falling but 50 feet in 150 miles until 
it reaches Killaloe, where, in a space of 15 miles, 
its waters present a difference of level of 97 
feet. Between Killaloe and Limerick, Sir R. 
Kane estimated that the Shannon gave 33,950 
horsepower in continuous action, day and night, 
throughout the entire year — and this is not the 
whole power of the river. After considering the 
distribution of the falls on the upper and mid- 
dle Shannon, the area of the catchment basin 
of the river at each fall, he arrived at the fol- 
lowing calculation: 

The total continuous power is, therefore, 4,717 
horse, which, added to that of the river from Killa- 
loe, 33,950, gives a force existing between Limerick 
and Lough Allen of 38,667 horsepower, supposed in 
constant action. . . . The area of the basin of 
the Shannon above Killaloe is 3,613 square miles, and 
as 36 inches of rain give 0.3 continuous horsepower 
per foot of fall for every square mile of basin, the 
total power of the Shannon, without evaporation, 
should be 1,084 horsepower per foot of fall. Its aver- 
age is found to be about 350, and hence the Shannon 
transmits annually to the sea 11.6 inches of water 
collected from its extensive basin, a result remark- 



Power and Fuel 175 

ably in accordance with that of 12 inches (one-third 
of the rain) which I have taken as the average of 
Ireland. 

And that is but one river. The Lee, the 
Blackwater, the Snir, the Nore, the Barrow, the 
Slaney, the Liffey, the Boyne, the Newry, the 
Lagan, the Blackwater (Ulster), the Bann, Up- 
per and Lower, the Foyle, the Moy, and the 
Corrib — ^to name only a few of the numerous 
rivers which Ireland possesses — all contain 
water-power ample enough, once scientifically 
conserved and harnessed, to render the prose- 
cution of manufacturing industry in Ireland a 
profitable undertaking, even were the country 
not possessed, as the English maintain, of abun- 
dant fuel resources. It is, of course, right to 
say that the vast inequality of force at different 
seasons is the most striking disadvantage of 
water-power, but this can be removed. The 
provision of reservoirs will ensure a steadiness 
of supply. Such work could be undertaken in 
conjunction with the drainage and reclamation 
schemes referred to elsewhere in this book, and 
with marked advantage to agriculturists, mill 
owners, navigation companies, and the other in- 



17-6 What Could Germany Do For Ireland? 

terests affected. Water-power is cheaper than 
steam-power, wherever it is available. In Eng- 
land this fact is recognized, for wherever water- 
power of any force is available in that country 
it is harnessed to industry. The advent of the 
turbine engine, so largely availed of in all parts 
of the world today, renders the rivers of Ire- 
land an asset of prime importance for the crea- 
tion and development of manufacturing indus- 
try in Ireland. The widespread utilization of 
her water-power for the production of electric- 
ity cannot fail to have a direct and powerful 
influence in the industrial development of Ire- 
land. Here, then, apart from Ireland's coal and 
peat resources, is practically a never failing 
source of continuous power, and source of 
wealth for the future Irish nation. With the 
aid of this mighty force, with which nature has 
so prodigally endowed the country, and utilized, 
as it can be, so cheaply and so easily for 
mechanical and electrical power, Irish manufac- 
tures can compete successfully with the prod- 
ucts of England and other manufacturing na- 
tions. 



Power and Fuel 111 

THE ELECTRIC SUPPLY IN" GERMANY 

The development of the supply of electricity 
in Germany may be seen from the following 
tables : 

The number of electric plants for general supply; 
that is, to generate electricity not only for individual 
need: 

1891, about 30 plants with 8,000 K.W. capacity 
1895, about 150 plants with 40,000 K.W. capacity 
1900, about 600 plants with 250,000 K.W. capacity 
1905, about 1,200 plants with 650,000 K.W. capacity 
1907, about 1,600 plants with 900,000 K.W. capacity 
1909, about 2,050 plants with 1,200,000 K.W. capacity 
1911, about 2,700 plants with 1,500,000 K.W. capacity 
1913, about 4,100 plants with 2,100,000 K.W. capacity 

Whereas formerly a central plant in genera] 
supplied only one town, plants have sprung up 
recently which supply electricity for a number 
of townships at one time. 

Number of towns supplied with electricity : 

1891, about 35 towns 
1895, about 170 towns 
1900, about 800 towns 
1905, about 2,000 towns 
1907, about 3,300 towns 
1909, about 4,600 towns 
1911, about 10,500 towns 
1913, about 17,500 towns 



178 What Could Germany Do For Ireland^ 

Districts were supplied containing : 

In 1896, about 8,000,000 inhabitants 

In 1900, about 17,000,000 inhabitants 

In 1907, about 25,000,000 inhabitants 

In 1911, about 40,000,000 inhabitants 

The development of the electric supply is 
tending more and more to replace the many 
small plants by a few large overland central 
plants. Eight hundred and fifty townships are 
supplied by the central plant of Groeba, for ex- 
ample. The districts which are supplied by one 
plant are extended further and further and the 
plants within its confines are shut down or are 
turned into sub-stations. The tendency is to- 
wards a uniform supply for entire Germany 
with a few large power plants. This develop- 
ment is therefore very important, because only 
in this way is it possible to make the electrical 
power cheaper for the consumer ; electricity can 
always be supplied much more cheaply by large 
power plants than by small ones. This is espe- 
cially true when water-power, peat, coal beds 
with not very high-grade coal, and waste gas 
can be used. The influence which this develop- 
mment has had on the reduction in the cost of 



Power and Fuel 179 

electricity in Germany may be seen from the 
following figures : 

The average price at the K. W. hour amounted to 

LIGHT POWER 

In 1900 1911 1900 1911 

Breslau 61.68 40.40 20.00 17.07 

Strassburg 47.20 34.98 15.50 9.65 

Stettin 49.00 36.55 32.94 17.14 

Of the 1,530 electric plants existing in 1907, 
526 used water-power exclusively or in conjunc- 
tion with other power. 

COAL 

England has considere(J her own interests 
solely in deceiving the world with the statement 
that Ireland's fuel resources are of so limited 
a capacity as not to justify their commercial 
development, and she holds the purse-strings 
that control the supply of capital for Ireland, 
which country possesses two sources of fuel am- 
ple enough to satisfy the requirements of the 
Irish nation for three hundred years to come. 
No doubt the large and constant market for her 
coal in Ireland has, to a great extent, influenced 
England in her policy of ^^wet-blahketing" 
coal mining in Ireland in the past hundred 



180 What Could Germany Do For Ireland? 

years. In his work on the fuel and other re- 
sources of Ireland, Sir Eobert Kane wrote of 
the coal formation of the country as follows : 

They (Irish coal districts) are seven in number; 
of these, one is in Leinster, two are in Munster, three 
in Ulster, and one in Connacht. These districts dif- 
fer materially in their product, according as they are 
situate to the north or to the south of Dublin. Those 
to the north yield bituminous or flaming coal; those 
to the south yield stone coal or anthracite, which 
burns without flame. 

In a report made to the International Geo- 
logical Congress at Toronto in 1913, the British 
Department of Agriculture for Ireland esti- 
mated the coal reserves of Ireland to be as fol- 
lows: 

Actual reserve 180,506,000 metric tons 

Probable reserve 110,840,000 metric tons 



Making a total of 291,346,000 metric tons of 
coal in reserve in the whole of Ireland. In ar- 
riving at these figures the Department's experts 
were careful to state that they had, of purpose, 
omitted to include an estimate of several dis- 
tricts, because, in their opinion, the coal of such 
tracts was unworkable, or would not pay to 
work. Furthermore, this report on Ireland's 



Power and Fuel 181 

coal deposits stated that it was possible the ex- 
perts who had compiled it had underestimated 
the quantity of coal in certain districts, because 
they had not the facilities to make more exten- 
sive surveys of such districts. Thus does this 
British Board in Ireland faithfully serve the in- 
terests of its master, the British Government, 
despite the fact that it is the Irish milch cow 
that has to provide the money to pay the sal- 
aries of the officials and the general cost of the 
maintenance of this miscalled ** Irish'' Depart- 
ment of Agriculture. 

As against these figures, admittedly inade- 
quate, of this British Departmental Board, it 
is interesting to submit the estimate of Ire- 
land's coal deposits made by Professor Hull in 
1881, who estimated the net tonnage (actual re- 
serve) available for use in the Irish coal fields 
at 209,000,000 tons of coal, in which estimate Sir 
R. Kane concurred. And we know that the out- 
put of coal from Irish mines has very consider- 
ably decreased in the past half-century. And 
let me submit this extract, taken from a state- 
ment issued in September, 1915, to show how 
faulty, in the case of at least one coal region in 



182 What Could Germany Do For Ireland? 

Ireland, the official estimate has been proven 
to be. The following is taken from a statement 
issued by the WoKhill Colliery, Co., Athy, 
which Mr. Parkinson is very patriotically mak- 
ing a practical endeavor to develop against 
mighty odds: 

It appears that the Irish Department of Agricul- 
ture, in a report to the International Geological Con- 
gress at Ottawa, in 1913, estimated the coal reserves 
in the Leinster coal field at 152,920,000 tons, whilst 
Mr. A. McHenry, Geological Expert, put the reserves 
at 219,000,000 tons. This calculation was made some 
years ago, and it is worth mentioning that within the 
last three months Mr. T. Hallissey, Geological Expert 
to the Department of Agriculture, has discovered by 
actual investigation that the coal field extends one and 
a half miles in a northwesterly direction beyond the 
line where heretofore it was believed the coal termi- 
nated, so that it is not unreasonable to assume that, 
therefore, there is considerably more coal in the dis- 
trict than even the experts know about. 

Here we have it stated that one district alone 
contains practically a greater reserve of coal 
than that given as the actual reserve of coal for 
all Ireland by the British authorities. The 
writer has not at his disposal further material 
to disprove the fallacious figures given by the 
English officials of Ireland ^s coal deposits, since 
no scientific survey of Ireland has been made. 



Power and Fuel 183 

such as has been made in all progressive coun- 
tries the world over. One of the earliest duties 
of an Irish Government must be to initiate and 
conduct a thorough, scientific survey of the 
whole island to ascertain with accuracy and 
definiteness the available wealth that lies em- 
bedded in the soil, the bogs, the rivers and the 
mountains of Ireland. Such a survey will 
demonstrate that Ireland's mineral wealth com- 
pares more than favorably with that of other 
countries of similar area in Europe, and that, in 
point of fact, her natural resources surpass 
those of many countries that today enjoy the 
blessings of domestic and political liberty. 

The output of coal in Ireland in 1911 was 
scarcely 84,000 tons, valued at less than $250,- 
000, and the number of men employed was 
only 790. 

As to the possibilities of development, 
granted certain necessary conditions and facil- 
ities, I shall only deal now with the most largely 
worked mines in modern Ireland. 

The Wolf hill Colliery, in Queen's County, is 
about ten miles from Athy, the nearest railway 
station, and covers in Kilkenny and Queen's 



184 What Could Germany Do For Ireland? 

County close on 20,000 statute acres. The Great 
Southern and Western Eailway would not con- 
nect the mines with Athy by a spur line, and so 
it costs over a dollar per ton to cart the coal to 
the railway station at Athy. This constitutes a 
heavy handicap on the project, especially when 
it has to compete with coal brought from Great 
Britain at cheap through rates. Furthermore, 
to rail the coal from Athy to Dublin costs al- 
most $3,00 per ton, while in most other countries 
the transit charge over a like distance would 
be about half this figure. The chief difficulty 
that this company labors under, then, is lack of 
proper transit facilities. To build a line of rail- 
way from the pit's mouth to Athy will necessi- 
tate an expenditure of close on $250,000, and at 
this figure would prove a profitable undertak- 
ing. The present output of 50 tons per day 
would be quadrupled in a short time, and in less 
than three years the output could be brought to 
1,000 tons daily. The construction of this line 
of railway would encourage the investing of 
capital on the building of miners' cottages, so 
that skilled labor could be brought into the dis- 
trict, and would mean a saving to the company 



Power and Fuel 185 

of at least one dollar per ton in cartage and 
freight charges. Besides, it must be remem- 
bered that every ton of coal raised in Ireland 
means Ireland richer by at least $5.00. After 
the construction of the line of railway there 
would be likely to spring up in the district the 
manufacture of bricks of various kinds from 
the different clays found in the mines and the 
manufacture of carbide of calcium and of port- 
land cement. Calcium cyanide, a fertilizer 
equal to nitrate of soda, could also be produced, 
and nitric acid likewise could be manufactured 
for smokeless powder and explosives generally. 

Wolfhill coal is a sound commercial product 
and the reserves are large. It only requires ef- 
ficient transit facilities to promote its develop- 
ment and to create additional industries, all of 
a paying character, in the district. 

A line of railway connecting Mr. Prior Wan- 
desford's collieries at Castlecomer with the 
Maryborough- Waterford branch of the Great 
Southern & Western Eailway would open up 
this whole district and be the means of develop- 
ing these important mines for the good of the 
whole community. The same story may be re- 



186 What Could Germany Do For Ireland? 

lated of the valuable Arigna coal and iron dis- 
trict, which, under a paternal government, will 
in the future become the heart of industrial Ire- 
land. A line starting at CoUooney in Sligo and 
running up through the Arigna Valley for a dis- 
tance of some four miles would greatly facili- 
tate the marketing on competitive lines of the 
immense mineral wealth of this district. The 
project to connect the mountains of coal in 
North Roscommon, at the junction of Sligo and 
Leitrim Counties, with railway facilities has 
been under discussion for very many years, but 
has never been brought to a head. Only in Oc- 
tober last a paragraph appeared in an Irish 
paper stating that it was feared the directors of 
the Arigna Coal Mines would be compelled to 
close down the work owing to the absence of 
such facilities. But enough has been stated to 
show the disabilities under which coal mining 
in Ireland is conducted. To get permission to 
construct a line of railway in Ireland, it is neces- 
sary to get a bill through the House of Com- 
mons in England, and subsequently through the 
House of Lords. Both legislatures largely rep- 
resent the coal owners of Great Britain, and it 



Power and Fuel 187 

is not to the interest of these people to facili- 
tate coal production in Ireland, as thereby the 
market for English coal in Ireland would be- 
come less valuable every year. The coal mines 
of Ireland must receive early attention from a 
truly Irish government, so that their value to 
the nation may be forthcoming, both as a source 
of wealth, a source of power and a source of 
large and remunerative employment for the 
people of Ireland. 

Ireland's remaining fuel resource, peat, we 
will consider in the succeeding chapter. 



CHAPTER XII 

THE PEAT KESOUKCES OF IRELAN^D 

The late Sir Richard Sankey, when president 
of the Irish Board of Works, said : 

The bogs are the true gold mines of Ireland, and 
(properly used) will enable her to compete with Eng- 
land and Scotland in every form of industry. 

A brother officer of his, Colonel F. T. War- 
burton, than whom no other living Irishman has 
done more to promote the development of the 
peat resources of Ireland, writes : ** All efforts 
after industrial development in Ireland will be 
in vain if they are not based on peat, the one 
means nature has accorded for their resurrec- 
tion.'' 

Writing in 1855, Anthony Marmion, dealing 
with the resources of Ireland, stated that: 

Independent of the coal mines, Ireland possesses 
two other sources of fuel — ^turf, or peat, and lignite, 
an intermediate species between wood and coal. The 
total area of the turf bogs of Ireland is estimated at 
2,830,000 acres, something more than one-eighth of the 
entire area of the island. Of these, 1,576,000 acres 
are flat bog, and 1,254,000 acres are mountain bog, 
scattered over the hilly districts near the coast. The 

i88 



The Peat Resources of Ireland 189 

turf bogs, so long neglected, are now undergoing ex- 
periments which, if successful, will render them as 
valuable as the mines of California or Australia. 

At an earlier period, Sir E. Kane, in his book 
published in 1844, surveying the forces of eco- 
nomic greatness in Ireland, wrote: 

The last of our sources of fuel that I shall proceed 
to describe is of comparatively modern formation, and 
is considered most specially characteristic of this 
island; it is our turf. Our bogs may become, under 
the influence of an enlightened energy, sources of in- 
dustry eminently productive. It is a fuel of excellent 
nature. We see it, in ordinary use, spoiled by its 
mode of preparation. It is here my duty to point 
out how it can be properly prepared, and economi- 
cally used. Its importance to Ireland will, I trust, 
justify me in entering into some detail as to its na- 
ture, its composition, and its preparation. The ex- 
cessive moisture of this climate, and the tendency to 
the growth of certain mosses, are the primary causes 
of bogs. When ignited, the turf gives off inflammable 
gas, much water, and leaves a light, easily combustible 
charcoal. Turf contains much less nitrogen than coal. 
Hence the liquor obtained in distilling turf contains 
no free ammonia. The calorific power of dry turf is 
about half that of coal. The employment of turf as 
a source of heat in industry is extending. There is 
in our bogs amassed a quantity of turf, which, if the 
peculiar characters of that fuel be suitably attended 
to, may become of eminent importance to the country. 

Turning to an official publication issued in 
1902 by the Department of Agriculture for Ire- 



190 What Could Germany Bo For Ireland? 

land, and entitled *^ Ireland: Industrial and 
Agricultural," the only reference to this source 
of wealth located in this work of more than 500 
pages is the following cryptic sentence: 

The many schemes for utilizing peat as fuel on a 
commercial scale have not met with much success, 
confronted as they are hy the nearness of the coal 
fields across the narrow channel on the east. 

The vast peat resources of the country, 
constituting almost a seventh part of the entire 
area of the island, are dismissed with that sin- 
gle sentence by this miscalled *^ Irish" Depart- 
ment of Agriculture. 

They want no future for Irish peat, owing to 
the fact that England possesses coal. And yet, 
as Colonel Warburton, alive to the hostility of 
English officials towards Irish industrial en- 
deavors, writes: 

Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Germany, Russia, Hol- 
land, parts of Austria, and Canada have made a per- 
fect success of peat fuel in competition with coal for 
the purposes of manufacture and ordinary household 
consumption, through the employment of a new 
method, dating from the beginning of the century, 
under conditions far less favorable than those which 
exist in Ireland, where the method has not been tried, 
partly because of the want of knowledge on the sub- 
ject by the Irish people ; partly because of their pov- 
erty; partly because of their having witnessed the 



The Peat Resources of Ireland 191 

total failure of antecedent methods, their consequent 
disbelief in peat fuel, but principally because of the 
suppressive measures adopted by the British Govern- 
ment,, and that part of it called * ' The Department of 
Agriculture for Ireland/' which has, in the interests 
of British coal proprietors and British industrialists, 
to suppress Irish industries competing with their own, 
sometimes by statute, and in latter days by taxation 
and underhand means. 



In Germany, we know, the peat resources of 
the country have been wonderfully developed. 
Gases generated from peat and lignite are dis- 
tributed through local stations to manufactur- 
ing plants and transportation systems. One of 
the by-products obtained is ammonia. In the 
extensive moors of Germany the utilization of 
peat for these purposes has opened up a source 
of power of great extent, and largely as a direct 
consequence of these developments, great 
stretches of formerly worthless lands have be- 
come valuable cultivated soil. Even Eussia, 
prior to the outbreak of war, had begun to de- 
velop along scientific lines the vast peat deposits 
of her empire. 

Peat authorities have shown that Continental 
peat competes with soft coal at $4.00 and $4.50 
per ton. Imported bituminous coal in the in- 



192 What Could German^/ Do For Ireland? 

land parts of Ireland invariably retails at from 
$7.00 to $8.00 per ton. Since the war, coal in 
the interior brings $10.00 and upwards per ton. 
But we must calculate on the normal prices. At 
Irish seaports, in normal periods, imported soft 
coal sells at $6.00 per ton. On the Continent, as 
is well known, the greatest enemy of peat fuel 
manufacture is frost. There the manufacture 
of peat fuel is limited to the months of June, 
July and August. For practically the remain- 
ing months of the year the bogs cannot be 
worked as, usually, they are frozen deep and 
cannot be cut until they thaw. Frost disinte- 
grates the peat, whether raw or shaped. Rain, 
on the other hand, once the bricks are formed 
and laid on the drying ground, closes up the 
outside pores. When fine weather returns the 
rains run ofif the bricks and their natural and 
inexpensive process of moisture exudation, tem- 
porarily arrested, is resumed. There is little 
or no frost experienced in the Irish climate. In 
the past eighty years, authorities state, there 
have been only four years in which the manufac- 
ture of peat fuel would have been retarded by 
frost. And the rainfall in Ireland is no greater 



The Peat Resources of Ireland 193 

than that of England. In some parts it is con- 
siderably lower than England's average. 

Elsewhere in this book I have quoted the of- 
ficial returns for wages paid to rural workers 
in Ireland. Nowhere are they more than $4.00 
weekly ; indeed, they are in some districts as low 
as $2.50. The wages paid on the Continent and 
in Canada to rural workers are considerably 
higher than this, so the manufacture of peat 
fuel in Ireland would have an initial advantage 
over other countries carrying on the industry. 
Of course, in time, wages in Ireland will in- 
crease ; indeed, they must do so speedily if the 
country is to retain sufficient agricultural labor 
for its growing needs. 

Manufacturers in the north of Ireland com- 
plain that because of the high price they have to 
pay for imported coal, they cannot pay the Eng- 
lish rate of wages. 

As the higher level seams become exhausted 
in England, coal is certain to advance in price. 
Labor in the open fields, making peat, is far 
more effective than coal-mining labor, with 
which it must be compared. Peat being at the 
surface, there will be no increase in price from 



194 What Could Germany Do For Ireland? 

that cause. Besides, the labor required for 
turning and piling the bricks is of so slight a 
character that women and youths can be re- 
muneratively employed. A family so employed 
would live in what they would call a state of 
affluence, as compared with their present often 
wretched condition. There would be no need to 
centralize labor, with its attendant evils. Every 
bog in the lowlands would become a source of 
employment, small plants being provided, suit- 
table to the local consumption, etc. Peat suffers 
from the disadvantage that it is slightly bulkier 
than coal and, consequently, increases the cost 
of freight and space required for storage. Ire- 
land is favorably situated for water delivery. 
The Eiver Shannon divides it from Boyle to 
Limerick, and the Grand Canal from Limerick 
to Dublin, and again, from Dublin to Water- 
ford, via Athy and the Barrow navigation. 

As against coal, however, peat loses far less 
through wastage or handling than bituminous 
coal, so largely used in Ireland. Peat fuel im- 
proves by keeping, whilst coal deteriorates; it 
is free from sulphur and is superior to coal for 
the manufacture of iron and for smelting pur- 



The Peat Resources of Ireland 195 

poses. Peat is far more sanitary than coal, is 
easier handled, is cleaner in use, gives off no 
dust, and, what is of far more importance to 
Ireland, is cheaper by nearly one-half than coal 
imported from either England or Scotland. 
Cheap fuel is indispensable for manufacturing 
purposes, and if Ireland is to revive success- 
fully her industries destroyed by British laws, 
her factories must have cheap coal. Peat fuel, 
taken from the bogs of Ireland, will satisfy 
their requirements in all respects. Practically 
all of industrial England, Wales and Scotland 
surround the coal fields of these countries. 
Cheapness of fuel at the pit 's mouth has caused 
congestion in those centers. Ireland's bogs are 
located in every county in Ireland, and conse- 
quently the same reason for the congestion of 
industries in any one district will not arise. 
Ireland, with her manufacturers working apace, 
will thus be enabled to enjoy widespread pros- 
perity, and at the same time her workers will be 
enabled to live in healthy, natural surroundings 
and to raise up their children near to nature 
and close to God. 

The River Shannon possesses superior ad- 



196 What Could Germany Do For Ireland? 

vantages for the erection of peat fuel manufac- 
tories along its banks. Some fourteen towns, 
with a combined population of 100,000 souls, 
can be reached by means of its navigation, and 
the Grand Canal to Dublin, with its 250,000 
people, also can be reached. And water car- 
riage is far cheaper than other forms of trans- 
portation. 

We know that Ireland annually pays over to 
England a sum of approximately $17,000,000 
for her coal and coke requirements. Her coal 
mines and bogs are severely neglected, so that 
English coal owners may hold their grip on this 
constant and remunerative coal market. The 
successful working of Ireland's coal and peat 
will result in saving these millions of dollars 
and will provide for her people steady employ- 
ment in their own land, and thus save the rem- 
nants of the race from emigrating. 

In a scheme prepared by Colonel Warburton 
for the erection of a peat fuel manufactory near 
the Shannon, he states that ^^peat fuel equal in 
caloric value to coal can be sold at a profit of 
$1.00 a ton at the rate of $4.00 a ton of 4,000 
pounds, the increased weight on 2,240 pounds 



The Peat Resources of Ireland 197 

being necessitated by the lesser specific gravity 
of the fuel, just as soft coal ordinarily used in 
English manufactures necessitates greater 
weight than anthracite coal." He estimates 
that $25,000 is required to equip a plant for the 
annual production of 10,000 tons of 4,000 
pounds, selling at $4.00 a ton. This would en- 
able the company easily to pay 20 per cent, on 
capital invested. With the employment of a 
larger capital than the amount mentioned in 
Colonel Warburton's plan, it is certain that 
many economies could be effected, such as 
cheapening the cost of machinery and savings 
on materials purchased in large quantities. 

Other purposes to which Ireland's peat may 
be applied are the production of electricity and 
of gas, the manufacture of paper, peat-moss lit- 
ter, which is largely imported into Ireland from 
the Continent, oil, and a variety of other indus- 
trial purposes. Germany can teach Ireland a 
great deal as to the proper utilization of her 
peat resources, which, in Sir E. Sankey's words, 
' ' are the true gold mines of Ireland. ' ' In water- 
power and in coal and peat fuel Ireland pos- 
sesses sources of natural wealth which, if prop- 



198 What Could Germany Do For Ireland? 

erly applied, cannot fail to place lier in the fore- 
most ranks of the manufacturing nations of the 
world of today. The sub-soil, after the cutting 
of the peat, could be cultivated. 

It will be interesting to see how Germany has 
dealt with this problem. 

Modern chemical science has been extensively 
applied by Germany to the development of her 
moorlands. By means of the Eimpan-Cunran 
system the productivity of the cultivated moor- 
lands has been increased to such an extent that 
its profitableness is assured. The Society for 
the Furtherance of the Cultivation of the Moor- 
lands of the German Empire has performed 
efficient service during the past two decades and 
has endowed scholarships for the study of the 
cultivation of the moors. The Central Moor- 
land Commission of Prussia has worked out the 
problems submitted to it by the Ministry of 
Agriculture. This Commission founded the 
Moor Experiment Station in Bremen, the func- 
tion of which is to promote the science and the 
technique of the cultivation of the moorlands in 
all directions by means of chemical, physical 
and botanical investigations. There have been 



The Peat Resources of Ireland 199 

numerous commissions appointed at enormous 
public expense to consider the Irish peat prob- 
lem, but nothing practical has so far resulted 
to the country. 

At the end of November, 1914, an ordinance 
was issued in Prussia which provides for the 
formation of compulsory associations that are 
to be established for the cultivation and utiliza- 
tion of moors, heaths, and similar regions un- 
der their owners. These regions are to be trans- 
formed into fields, meadows, and pastures, and 
cultivated according to a uniform plan by 
means of drainage and the building of neces- 
sary roads and ditches. 

The Kaiser has on all occasions personally 
identified himself with efforts to turn the moors 
of Germany into sources of strength and nour- 
ishment for the empire. On the Prussian State 
Model Farm at Wiesmoor in Aurich, an electric 
plant has been installed, in which the peat 
burned under the boilers gave the power for 
running the dynamo machines. In 1914 the 
maximum achievement of this plant amounted 
to 6,000 horsepower. It supplied a large part 
of the surrounding country with electricity, and 



200 What Could Germany Do For Ireland? 

when completed, will supply entire East Fries- 
land and the Grand Duchy of Oldenburg (a ter- 
ritory of 3,700 square miles) with light and 
power. Also, the electric power so derived is 
used at the same time for the cultivation of the 
moors themselves, for peat-cutting machines, 
plows, etc., are all driven by electricity and the 
expensive human labor is thus relieved for other 
purposes. It has been clearly demonstrated 
that the peat layers can be used to great advan- 
tage for the generation of electric power. Tech- 
nical improvement of the plant has made it pos- 
sible to reduce the consumption of peat to two 
kilograms per kilowatt hour (one kilogram is 
equal to 220 pounds). 

The German scientist Mond has succeeded in 
gasifying peat containing over 60 per cent, of 
water in generator furnaces, and at the same 
time produced substances such as sulphate of 
ammonia, important for both industry and agri- 
culture. The gas produced is used for driving 
highly efficient gas motors, which, for their part, 
set electric dynamos in action. The profitable- 
ness of such a plant is assured by the produc- 
tion of quantities of sulphate of ammonia. 



CHAPTER XIII 

THE lEISH FISHEEIES 

In the five years, 1909-1913, Ireland purchased 
from England fish (fresh, cured and shell) to 
the estimated value of more than $8,000,000. 
We may be asked what is remarkable in that 
fact. Let us glance at a map of Europe and 
inquire why, situated an island, in celebrated 
fishing waters, Ireland should have any neces- 
sity for procuring her fish supplies from Eng- 
land or any other country, instead of from the 
hidden depths of the mighty Atlantic that foams 
round her shores. Why must this natural home 
of fisheries enrich England every year by some 
$1,600,000 paid for fish food for the Irish 
people, to the utter neglect of her own fishing 
resources I We have been told that her sons are 
not hardy sailors. How could these island 
people avoid seafaring? The people are cut off 
by an expanse of water from all contact with 
outside countries. Ireland is not only a mari- 
time country, but, by virtue of necessity, her 

201 



202 What Could Germany Do For Ireland? 

people are possessed of all the instincts and 
attributes of a people born and bred within 
sound of the waves washing their sea-girt 
homes. Replying, in 1883, to an argument based 
on this fallacy, the then President of the Uni- 
versity at Cork (the late Professor W. K. Sul- 
livan) wrote: 

The Irish are naturally sailors. Among the best 
fishermen of the United Kingdom are three essentially 
Celtic peoples — the Cornishmen, the Manxmen (who 
still speak an Irish dialect), and the Gaelic-speaking 
fishers of Argyle and the Hebrides. The Bretons, the 
most daring and enterprising fishermen in Europe, 
are Celts, and their descendants in Newfoundland, 
and those Irish who emigrated there, are among the 
hardiest fishermen in America. 

We point to the British navy, where in every 
rank up to that of Admiral, Irish-born men have 
at all periods asserted and established beyond 
question their superiority as sailors. Those 
who would wish to learn something more about 
the Irish as sailors can read the history of the 
United States Navy, from its father, Commo- 
dore John Barry, down to Admiral Mahan, who 
died only a few years ago and who was classed 
as the most gifted naval strategist of his time. 

It may be urged that the Irish waters have 



The Irish Fisheries 203 

not fish in abundance to justify the carrying on 
of a fishing industry in Ireland. Later in this 
chapter I hope to indicate the great wealth that 
lies hidden in the Irish deep-sea and inland fish- 
eries. Just here, and by way of reply to the 
question raised, I need only point to the fact 
that great fleets of fishers come year after year 
to Irish waters from Scotland, the Isle of Man, 
Wales, England, Brittany and Denmark, gar- 
nering the rich harvests of the Irish waters for 
the enrichment and nourishment of their respec- 
tive peoples, and to the further impoverishment 
of the fast dying Irish fishing industry. Also, 
the great seaports on the west coast of England 
are mainly dependent for the fish landed on 
their wharves from the harvests of the Irish 
seas. 

There must be a cause, however, it will be 
urged, and there is. The principal cause of all 
Irish industrial ills and the present decay in all 
branches of human endeavor within Ireland, is 
British Rule in Ireland. It is a fixed, immov- 
able principle of the English direction of Irish 
affairs that the country should not be permitted 
to become a formidable competitor of England. 



204 What Could Germany Do For Ireland? 

This lias ever been the attitude of the conqueror 
towards the conquered. History holds no rec- 
ord of a subject race prospering exceedingly 
under foreign domination. England's view is 
that so long as Ireland exists she must hold her 
in subjection, to enable her to retain and main- 
tain her supremacy of the seas. A truly pros- 
perous Ireland could not for long be held in 
subjection; she would soon assert her right to 
direct her own affairs, internal and external, 
and, as all who have given some thought to 
naval affairs know, this for England would in- 
evitably mean the passing of the Trident out of 
Britannia's hands for all time. 

That Ireland at one time enjoyed an exten- 
sively conducted fishing industry is a matter of 
history, amply borne out by the trade records 
of Ireland, down to the amalgamation of the 
customs of both countries, a century back. 
There is no country in Europe so admirably 
situated for the successful conduct of an exten- 
sive fishing industry as Ireland. She is located 
in the center of the richest fishing territory in 
Europe, has numerous natural harbors, up- 
wards of 100 rivers and numerous lakes, all fre- 



The Irish Fisheries 205 

quented by salmon and other fresh-water fish, 
and, furthermore, is within easy reach of some 
of the best fish markets in the world. Writing 
in 1855 of the west-coast fisheries of Ireland, 
Anthony Marmion, in his work on ' ' The History 
of the Maritime Ports of Ireland," said; 

From Cape Clear in the south to Malinhead in the 
northwest, the coast is studded with numerous banks 
. . . abounding with fish of the most valuable de- 
scription, such as ling, cod (equal to those of the 
North Sea), haddock weighing from 15 to 30 pounds, 
etc. The sea along the coast is often speckled with 
marine animals of a larger size, such as the Green- 
land and spermaceti whale,* the sun-fish, etc., pro- 
ducing oil of the most valuable description. 

Here, then, is a field open for the employment of 
100,000 Irishmen, whose operations would give sus- 
tenance to millions of people. This coast was the 
principal fishing ground of the Dutch in the palmy 
days of their naval superiority, when their Admiral 
Van Tromp, with a broom at his masthead, contemp- 
tuously swept the seas for a considerable time with- 
out molestation. Those enterprising navigators, in 
1615, had 2,000 fishing vessels with 37,000 men, and 
the produce of their fishing for one year previous 
thereto amounted to close on $10,000,000. (Note, this 

*It is interesting to know that two whaling stations are 
working at Inishkea and Blacksod on the west coast of Ire- 
land, two whalers working from each station, In 1913 the 
number of whales landed at Inishkea was 49, and at Blacksod 
station 65. The whales caught included Sperm, Fin, Blue 
and Hampback varieties. The total production of oil was 
3,900 barrels and of whale bone about 4 tons and 175 bags, 
and in addition a large quantity of manure. Close on 70 
hands were employed at the two factories. 



206 What Could Germany Do For Ireland? 

amount would be equal to from 40 to 50 million dol- 
lars today.) In 1618 they increased to 3,000 vessels 
and 50,000 men, with 9,000 vessels to transport the fish 
to various countries, and computing those occupied 
in the curing and sale of the fish, it must have given 
employment to 150,000 persons, and was the great 
nursery for producing skilful and experienced sea- 
men to man their navy. Although Blake's victories 
tended to destroy their fishing on the Irish coast, Eng- 
land did not profit by the lessons of the Dutch, and 
with Ireland for centuries in its hands, has never 
attempted, on a large scale, to explore the vast treas- 
ures of the deep sea that washes the western shores of 
Ireland. 

That was in 1855. England has since learned 
the lesson and every season now explores those 
treasures referred to by Marmion in her own 
interest and for her own profit. English, 
Scotch, Welsh and Manx trawlers now infest 
Irish waters, and are not deterred from poach- 
ing within the limits by the one small steamboat 
that patrols the whole Irish coast, to protect the 
interests of the poor and ill-equipped Irish 
fishers. 

The following table is instructive, as it shows 
pithily the tragic decline in the Irish fisheries 
within the past seventy years; 



The Irish Fisheries 



207 



Year. 


No. of Vessels 


Men and Boys 


Quantity of 
Fish Landed 


1845 
1852 
1911 
1913 


19,883 

13,227 

5,515 

5,093 


93,073 

58,822 
20,098 
18,074 


989,484 cwts. 
676,392 " 



The following table will show the extent of 
the fishing industry carried on at the places 
mentioned in the year 1851 : 



District 


No, of Vessels 


Men and Boys 


Claddagh 


1,083 


3,337 


Youghal 


574 


2,786 


Sligo 


475 


2,724 


Wexford 


448 


2,059 


Waterford 


384 


1,578 


Dundalk 


283 


1.235 


Arklow 


200 


950 



Furthermore, the records tell us that pre- 
vious to 1835 Cork exported annually upwards 
of 20,000 barrels of herrings. It was the only 
place then known where fish were cured and 
packed to stand a warm climate. In 1654 some 
120,000 barrels of herrings were cured at Wex- 
ford, of which number 80,000 were exported to 
England. Marmion relates that **at Killala, in 
1782, as if to usher in the dawn of free trade 
for Ireland, the coast swarmed with herrings; 



208 What Could Germany Do For Ireland? 

23 millions were caught off the Bosses, and the 
Commissioners of Fisheries were assured as 
many could have been taken as would have 
loaded every vessel in Great Britain.^' Of the 
inland fisheries, we know that salmon was the 
daily fare of the whole people of Ireland. The 
salmon fisheries of the Suir, Nore and Barrow, 
all three rivers flowing into Waterf ord harbor, 
exported 20,852 salmon, weighing 151,645 
pounds, to Bristol in the year 1844, independent 
of the large quantity sent to Dublin and con- 
sumed at home. In 1843 some 21,660 salmon 
were taken on the River Bann, the great bulk 
of the catch being exported. At Sligo some 
eight tons of salmon were taken in 1845, and a 
similar tale of successful fishing could be re- 
lated, at that date, of every other river in Ire- 
land. Marmion, in the quotation above given, 
referred to the Dutch fishing off the Irish coast. 
Long before the Dutch ruled the seas the Span- 
iards were wont to send at least 600 ships to 
Ireland every year for fishing alone, and con- 
tinued to do so for many a year, despite an act 
passed in England in 1465 to forbid strangers 
from fishing on the Irish shores without license. 



The Irish Fisheries 209 

Such is, in bald outline, an indication of the 
former greatness of the Irish fishing industry, 
and of the wealth that lies in the waters that 
lave her shores. How England accomplished 
the destruction of this industry cannot be fully 
recited within the necessarily small compass of 
a chapter such as this. It was neither the Eng- 
lish-promoted famine of 1846-47 nor the terrible 
exodus of the Irish people to foreign lands in 
succeeding years that brought about the ruin 
of this industry. Mention has been made of an 
enactment of the English Parliament of 1465, 
aimed more against the prosperity of the Irish 
of that day, due to their direct intercourse with 
nations other than England, than at the en- 
croachments of the Spanish fishers on Irish 
waters. For the Spaniards paid the Irish for 
permission to fish off their coasts. This, and 
successive restrictive enactments of the British 
House of Parliament, brought about the decline 
in the Irish fisheries. Let us hear Marmion's 
comment on this aspect of the case : 

As far back as 1777 an act was passed which in 
itself was sufficient to annihilate the Irish sea fish- 
eries. It prohibited the tanning with bark of nets 
and lines for fishing purposes, and rendered com- 



210 What Could Germany Bo For Ireland? 

pulsory the smearing of them with tar and oil, the 
color and smell of which frightened away the fish and 
contributed to the decay of the nets, while the Eng- 
lish fisherman was allowed to tan his nets with oak 
bark, which preserved them for ten or twelve seasons. 
The greatest enemy to the Irish fisheries could not 
have devised a happier scheme than this to extinguish 
them. 

This great industry was killed of set purpose 
by the English, the cupidity, envy and jealousy 
of whose merchants have worked such havoc on 
all Irish efforts after commercial and industrial 
prosperity. This trade, like so many other 
Irish businesses, has passed into the hands of 
the English, as the following official figures will 
demonstrate : 





GREAT BRITAIN IRELAND 


Year 


Vessels 


Men 


Vessels 


Men 


1899 
1901 


18,010 
17,422 


60,453 
59,138 


7,919 

7,877 


9,333 

8,689 



Let us examine the question from two more 
aspects. In 1901 Ireland possessed only 378 
first-class boats of 15 tons and upwards. That 
same year Scotland possessed 3,321 and Eng- 
land 3,316 of similar tonnage. Furthermore, in 
1902 the value of the fish landed in Ireland 



The Irish Fisheries 211 

amounted to only $1,500,000, whilst the figures 
for Scotland and England, respectively, were 
$12,905,000 and $34,000,000. Figures eloquent 
of the undoing of Ireland's fisheries ! The ques- 
tion need not be argued further. The industry 
today is all but extinct. There are parts of the 
interior of Ireland, small as the country is, 
where a fresh deep-sea fish is never marketed. 
All the large towns and populous centers are de- 
pendent upon England for their fish supplies. 
Indeed, the catches scarcely provide fish food, 
all the year round, for the poor fishers and their 
families, who are compelled to eke out a liveli- 
hood by combining badly-conducted tillage with 
indifferent fishing. But what is more tragic 
from the point of view of the patriots of the 
country is that the Irish language is spoken as 
an every-day tongue only by the poor fisherf oik 
who inhabit the coastal districts, and their im- 
poverishment and passing away mean the in- 
evitable extinction of the spoken tongue of the 
Gael, which for centuries was the only tongue 
spoken in Ireland. The fate of the historic 
Irish nation under British domination is tragic 
in the extreme, and only the invincible arms of 



212 What Could Germany Bo For Ireland? 

Germany can undo the evil and destruction 
wrought in Ireland. 

The Irish administration to be established 
will be judged by the degree of prosperity which 
the country will reach under its tutelage and 
care. In the preceding chapters sources of 
wealth have been indicated that, if developed 
scientifically, cannot fail to assure prosperity 
and affluence to the Irish nation in the years to 
come. In the deep-sea and inland fisheries of 
Ireland lie wealth and food untold for the en- 
richment and sustenance of many millions. 
True statesmanship will avail of this ready 
source of wealth and food for the people, and 
will seek to develop and extend a world-wide 
trade in both fresh and cured fish. Germany 
and America are both large consumers of cured 
herrings. Both countries at the present time 
take some of their herring supplies from Ire- 
land. This is a market capable of unlimited de- 
velopment. The sympathy and understanding 
that exist between all three countries will prove 
a valuable asset in the propagation of trade and 
commerce between them. Ireland has much to 
gain by such alliance. Let us hope her leaders 



The Irish Fisheries 213 

of the future wil recognize and avail themselves 
to the full of this fact. To develop the Irish 
fisheries on scientific lines will require careful 
and generous handling. The antiquated boats 
and gear will have to be replaced by up-to-date 
power boats with modern fishing gear and ap- 
pliances. Piers must be built around the coast 
for shelter and harborage. The existing de- 
ficiency in means of communication with mar- 
kets must be removed by the provision of facil- 
ities for quick despatch both by sea and land. 
The Irish carrying companies will have to be 
made to recognize that their present high 
freight and inadequate facilities tend to dis- 
courage enterprise in Ireland, and the state 
must see to it that it owns and operates the rail- 
ways for the good of the people, as in Germany. 
Curing stations on land and adequate apparatus 
for curing on board ship must be established 
for the catch of fish and for the requirements 
of the different markets. The provision of 
suitable and highly trained teachers for such 
work will also have to be attended to, as also the 
training of the boys and girls to make and mend 
the fishing nets, for which Ireland pays to Eng- 



214 What Could Germany Do For Ireland? 

land every year close upon $200,000. The erec- 
tion of suitable works for cooperage and box- 
making must also be provided, and a market 
found for the millions of tons of kelp that 
strew the whole coastline of Ireland. An ade- 
quate and efficient patrol system must be in- 
augurated. The great essential will be capital, 
cheap and available for those who follow the call 
of the sea. The loans that, prior to the war, 
were granted to Irish fishers were small and 
inadequate, and have altogether ceased. To es- 
tablish the industry on paying lines capital will 
have to be forthcoming freely and on easy 
terms. The banks of the country must do their 
share here. The formation of companies to 
carry on trawling operations on a large scale 
must be encouraged, and Queenstown, boycotted 
by the English shipping companies, could give 
far greater and far more remunerative em- 
ployment to its people by the establishment of 
a trawling fleet in the harbor than it ever re- 
ceived from the emigrant traffic, for which alone 
the English boats continued to call at that port. 
Re-established on lines such as those herein in- 
dicated, the Irish fishing industry would speed- 



The Irish Fisheries 215 

ily forge to the front, and in a short space of 
time the wealth now lost to Ireland in her 
coastal and inland waters would be made avail- 
able for the building up of the new Irish nation. 



CHAPTER XIV 

IRELAND IN OLDEN DAYS 

We've heard her faults a hundred times — the new 

ones and the old-^ 
In songs and sermons, rants and rhymes, enlarged a 

hundred-fold ; 
But take them all, the great and small, and this we Ve 

got to say — 
Heroes dear old Ireland, brave old Ireland, Ireland, 

boys, hurrah! 

Eealizing the vital importance of Ireland to 
England's world domination, both on sea and 
land, English policy in regard to Ireland has 
been framed and directed to the end that Ire- 
land's very existence as a separate entity on 
the face of the globe would come to be forgotten 
in time by the peoples of other countries, and 
that such of the native race as continued to 
survive the rigors of British rule in Ireland 
would be raised in ignorance of the true impor- 
tance of Ireland to the peace and security of the 
world. To those of the Irish race conversant 
with her history it is humiliating to have to tes- 
tify, after wide traveling experience, to the 

216 



Ireland in Olden Bays 217 

density of the ignorance of Ireland and of her 
affairs displayed the world over today. Un- 
questionably, England has a set purpose in 
causing the outside world to forget the existence 
of Ireland. Where the name ^* Ireland'' is 
known to foreigners, it is invariably understood 
to form an internal part or shire of England, 
and English-speaking Irishmen experience very 
considerable difficulty abroad in convincing 
even educated and travelled Continental folk 
that they are not Englishmen, nor of the same 
country or race as Englishmen. Time was when 
the outer world was fully alive to the existence 
of Ireland, when she filled a large space in the 
sun ; time was when she amply justified her po- 
sition as a civilized world power, radiating with 
the true spirit of practical Christianity. As 
Mrs. Alice Stopford Green, widow of the dis- 
tinguished English historian of that name, tells 
us in her historic work, ' ' The Making of Ireland 
and Its Undoing," as early as 1000 A. D. Ire- 
land was known to France as *^that very 
wealthy country in which there were twelve 
cities, with wide bishoprics, and a king, and 
which had its own language and Latin letters." 



218 What Could Germany Do For Ireland? 

In 1087 William Rufus of England, planning an 
invasion of Ireland, spoke of her as '*a land 
very rich in plunder, and famed for the good 
temperature of the air, the f ruitf nines s of the 
soil, the pleasant and commodious seats for 
habitation, and safe and large ports and havens 
lying open for traffic. ' ' So few people today of 
the outer world understand that the Irish race 
is and was distinct from the English, and so 
very many live in the belief that England al- 
ways did own Ireland, and so large a number 
express the opinion that the Irish are incapable 
of working out the destinies of their nation, that 
it is desirable and necessary briefly to state the 
true historic facts of the Irish situation for the 
enlightenment of democracies the world over. 
Sir J. T. Gilbert, Ireland's foremost archivist 
and archaeologist, tells us that the earliest tribes 
to reach Ireland, back in the twilight of history, 
long ere England was even known to exist, were 

familiar with all science necessary to preserve exis- 
tence and organize a new country into a human habi- 
tation. They cleared the forests, worked the mines, 
built chambers for their dead after the manner of 
their kindred left in Tyre and Greece, wrought arms, 
defensive and offensive, such as the heroes of Mara-, 
then used against the long-haired Persian; thej 



Ireland in Olden Bays 219 

raised altar and pillar stones, still standing amongst 
us, mysterious and eternal symbols of a simple, prim- 
itive creed; they had bards, priests, and law-givers, 
the old tongue of Shinar, the dress of Nineveh, and 
the ancient faith whose ritual was prayer and sacri- 
fice. 

Of the second people who found their way to 
Ireland the same authority tells us that they 

brought with them the Syrian arts and civilization, 
such as dyeing and weaving, working in gold, silver 
and brass, besides the written characters, the same as 
Cadmus afterwards gave to Greece, and which re- 
mained in use amongst the Irish for above a thousand 
years, until modified by St. Patrick into their pres- 
ent form to assimilate them to the Latin. 

Continuing, this same writer, from his re- 
searches, ascertained that 

continued intercourse with their Tyrian kindred soon 
filled Ireland with the refinements of a luxurious civi- 
lization. From various sources we learn that in those 
ancient times the native dress was costly and pic- 
turesque, and the habits and modes of living of the 
chiefs splendid and Oriental. The high-born and 
wealthy wore tunics and fine linen of immense width, 
girdled with gold, and with flowing sleeves after the 
Eastern fashion. . . . The ladies wore the silken 
robes and flowing veils of Persia, or rolls of linen 
wound round the head like the Egyptian Isis, the 
hair curiously plaited down the back and fastened 
with gold or silver bodkins, whilst the neck and arms 
were profusely covered with jewels. These relics of 
a civilization 3,000 years old may still be gazed upon 
by modern eyes in the splendid and unrivalled anti- 



220 What Could Germany Do For Ireland? 

quarian collection of the Royal Irish Academy (Dub- 
lin). The golden circlets, the fibulae, torcques, 
bracelets, rings, etc., worn by the native race are not 
only costly in value, but often so singularly beautiful 
in the working out of minute artistic details that 
modern art is not merely unable to imitate them but 
even unable to comprehend how the ancient workers 
in metals could accomplish works of such delicate, 
almost microscopic, minuteness of finish. 

This half-Tyrian, half-G-reek race occupied 
Ireland for centuries and traded with Tyre, and 
subsequently with Carthage. That Ireland had 
an extensive and valuable Continental trade in 
pre-Christian days has been demonstrated be- 
yond dispute. The Brehon Laws of Ireland and 
the Book of Rights contain so many and such 
detailed instructions regarding oversea trade 
that it is not necessary to look for other author- 
ities within Ireland. Historical writers of 
France speak of the early trade relations be- 
tween Ireland and that country. Tacitus, who 
lived in the first century of the Christian era, 
has left it on record that the ports of Ireland 
were better known to merchants and traders by 
reason of the abundance of commerce than those 
of Britain. From Juvenal's *' Satires" we 
learn that Irish woolens were sold in the mar- 



Ireland in Olden Days 221 

kets of Eome at that early period. King Al- 
fred of the Saxons, who came to Ireland to 
study in the year 635, has left it on record that 
he found in Ireland ^*much food, raiment, gold, 
silver, honey, wheat, health, prosperity, traffic 
and cities.'' Before Norse or English invaded 
Ireland, commercial relationship with Tyre, 
Carthage, Greece, Italy, Spain, France, Bel- 
gium, Britain and Scotland had been established 
by Ireland. In far-away Arabia, too, our coun- 
try was known as **Irandah-al-Kaberah" (Ire- 
land the Great). At the time of the Anglo- 
Saxon invasion of Ireland, Dublin was de- 
scribed by an English writer as ^ * a noble mari- 
time city, the metropolis of Ireland, and about 
the rival of London for commerce and abun- 
dance of its port." It was, in fact, as Mrs. 
Green tells us, 

the activity, the importance, and the riches of Ire- 
land that drew to it the attention of commercial Eng- 
land under the Tudor kings. For in the spacious days 
of their business adventures, wealth that was not in 
English hands seemed to practical Englishmen re- 
sources merely wasted and lost. 

Again, she tells us that 

Ireland, in fact, was a country of active and organized 
industry, with skilled manufacturers and a wide com- 



222 What Could Germany Bo For Ireland? 

merce. Its artisans had long been passing over to 
other lands for trade in considerable numbers. . . . 
The chief resort of Irish merchants was to the Con- 
tinent. . . . Numbers of married Irishmen set- 
tled in the Netherlands and in Spain and had free 
access and traffic there. In the Spanish war with 
England, Phillip ordered that the Irish traders should 
not be interfered with: they passed freely every- 
where. . . . European culture was carried back 
to Ireland by her merchants abroad, and Irish scholars 
were supported on the Continent, and Irish colleges 
endowed by these traders in foreign lands. . . . 
Evidences of an extensive trade were to be met with 
round the entire coast of Ireland, spreading thence 
over the whole of Europe. . . . Irish merchants 
of the towns were sailing their ships to the chief ports 
of Europe and amassing substantial fortunes. At 
home they were building houses and improving the 
towns in a manner that befitted their standing. . . . 
Inland trade prospered with the traffic of frequent 
markets, the interchange of gold and silver plate, and 
the * ' large tributes of money ' ' given to Ireland by the 
commerce of European nations. The people who had 
some schooling naturally talked Latin, the language 
of their Continental trade, for English would have 
been of little use to them in commerce, and ' ' the Irish 
is as wise as the Spaniard is proud," said an English 
observer. 

Truly, as Mrs. Green pithily concludes : 

it was indeed the wealth and not the poverty of the 
people of Ireland that had drawn the invaders to her 
pillage. 

Side by side and contemporaneous with this 
great development in the internal and external 



Ireland in Olden Bays 223 

trade of Ireland, the national love for learning 
asserted itself in a manner that was at once a 
revelation and a source of inspiration to the 
rest of Europe. Schools and monasteries flour- 
ished throughout the land, practically all of 
them built and endowed by native princes and 
wealthy, public-spirited merchants. Scholars 
were hospitably welcomed throughout the land. 
Her great seats of learning were open free to 
students from abroad, and youths of England, 
France, Germany and Switzerland flocked to 
them for knowledge and culture. Lord Lyttle- 
ton, in his ^^Life of Henry II.,'' states that 

many Irish went from thence (Ireland) to convert 
and teach other nations. Many Saxons out of Eng- 
land resorted thither for instruction, and brought 
from thence the use of letters to their ignorant coun- 
trymen. 

Guizot, the historian, of France, relates that 

of all the countries of the west, Ireland was, for a 
long time, that in which alone learning was supported, 
and throve amid the general overthrow of Europe. 

Mosheim, in his ^* Ecclesiastical History,'' af- 
firms that 

the Irish were lovers of learning, and distinguished 
themselves in those times of ignorance beyond all other 
European nations, traveling through the most dis- 



224 What Could Germany Do For Ireland? 

tant lands with a view to improve and communicate 
their knowledge, ... we see them in the most 
authentic records of antiquity discharging, with the 
highest reputation and applause, the functions of 
doctors in France, Germany and Italy. 

History teaches us that it was Ireland, 
through St. Columcille, who Christianized Scot- 
land, and that after his death (A. D. 597) his 
Irish monks from lona carried his Christianiz- 
ing work over the whole of England, succeeding 
in their mission where Augustine and his 
Roman missionaries had failed in their efforts. 
St. Columbanus, with twelve Irish monks, 
crossed Gaul to the Vosges and founded monas- 
teries at Luxeuil (575 A. D.) in France, in 
Switzerland, and at Bobbio in the Appenines. 
Ireland gave St. Gall to Switzerland, and St. 
Killian and St. Virgilius to Germany. In Ger- 
many today no fewer than 200 churches are 
dedicated to the memories of Irish missionaries. 
An Irishman, John Scotus Brigena, taught phil- 
osophy with distinction at Paris, and we know 
that Charlemagne confided into the care of Irish 
missionaries the two universities which he 
founded in Paris and Pavia. Twelve Irish mon- 
asteries were established in Germany and 



Ireland in Olden Days 225 

Austria, and an Irish abbot presided over a seat 
of learning in Bulgaria. Indeed, so great be- 
came the fame of Ireland among Continental 
peoples that *^ strangers, moved by the love of 
study, set out after the manner of their ances- 
tors, to visit the land of the Irish, so wonder- 
fully celebrated for its learning. ' ' 

Such is but a faint picture of Ireland in those 
days when she was truly Irish — 

Ere the emerald gem of the western world 
Was set in the crown of a stranger. 

^^ Irish history,'' said an English statesman 
of our day, *4s for Ireland to forget." To be 
true to the traditions and teachings of his 
school he should have asked the outside world 
to do likewise, but, no doubt, with his official 
knowledge, he considered it superfluous to do 
so, since the diplomacy and statecraft of Eng- 
land have ever worked, and with only too suc- 
cessful effect, to make the outer nations forget 
Ireland, and disremember all that European 
civilization owes to the culture and missionary 
and commercial zeal of the Irish in pre-English 
days. That this was England's avowed pur- 
pose in the days of her early empire is con- 



226 What Could Germany Do For Ireland^ 

f essed by their own historian Plowden, who has 

frankly avowed that 

we (English) have still more reason to lament the 
shameful and fatal policy of our ancestors (English), 
who from the first invasion of Henry Plantagenet 
down to the reign of James I., took all possible means 
of art and force to destroy whatever writings had by 
chance or care been preserved from destruction at the 
hands of the Danes. They (English) imagined that 
the perusal of such work kept alive the spirit of the 
natives (Irish) and kindled them to rebellion by re- 
minding them of the power, independence, and 
prowess of their ancestry. 

That same spirit has been handed down 
through the ages, and it is to this desire on the 
part of the English to obliterate all traces of 
native greatness in Ireland from the minds of 
the Irish that the teaching of Irish history in 
the schools and colleges of Ireland has been at 
all times discountenanced by the English in Ire- 
land. 

There was a day when Ireland was one of the 
European centers of medical science. That day 
is past; young Irish physicians and surgeons 
of ability seek other fields. Some of the great- 
est doctors in the United States were born in 
Ireland. One of the leading hospitals in Europe 
is located in Dublin. Dr. William J. Mayo, of 



Ireland in Olden Bays 227 

Eochester, Minnesota, who is regarded as 

America's foremost surgeon, says: 

Germany has been and is today the centre of medi- 
cal science. The Germans are, indeed, leaders in all 
branches of science, and they also possess the power 
to maintain themselves on this height. Americans 
particularly have profited from the German school 
more than any other. The Germans have gladly let 
others partake of their astounding store of knowl- 
edge. They have educated the world. 

In all of the great German universities there 
is unfeigned admiration for the Irish friend- 
ships formed, and in medical science German 
knowledge will prove of great help in the phys- 
ical welfare of the Ireland that is to be. 

The Gaelic language is studied and honored 
in several German universities, and one of the 
most valuable lectures on ancient Ireland the 
writer heard from the lips of Professor Kuno 
Meyer of Dublin, a noted Irish language 
scholar. We quote Professor Meyer: 

English conquest and English policy have com- 
pletely altered the natural and historical position of 
Ireland with regard to the rest of the world. She has 
compelled the trade of Ireland to be with herself 
alone; she has cut her off from all direct communi- 
cation with the Continent, and keeps her, as it were, 
concealed from Europe, while so long as Ireland was 
free and independent, she, lying in the direct route 
of trade, carried on a thriving commerce with Spain, 



228 What Could Germany Do For Ireland? 

France and Scandinavia, and was as much a part of 
Europe as any other country on that continent. By 
this intercourse, which goes back to the earliest times, 
it came to pass that Ireland, though never conquered 
by Eome, shared in the general civilization of Europe. 
This we can best see from Irish art, in which we can 
trace Roman, Greek and even Oriental influences. 

When, in the fifth century, Ireland had become 
the heiress of the classical and theological learning of 
the Western Empire, a period of humanism was 
ushered in which reached its culmination in the sixth 
and following centuries, the golden age of Irish civi- 
lization, as we may call it. The charge that is so 
often leveled against Irish history, that it has been, 
as it were, in a backwater, where only the fainter wash 
of the larger currents reaches, cannot apply to this 
period. For once, at any rate, Ireland drew upon her- 
self the eyes of the whole world, not, as so often in 
later times, by her unparalleled sufferings, but as the 
one haven of rest in a world overrun by barbarians, 
as the great seminary of Christian and classical learn- 
ing, the quiet habitation of sanctity and literature. 
Her sons, carrying Christianity and a new humanism 
over Great Britain and the Continent, became the 
teachers of other nations, the tutors of princes and 
the counselors of kings and emperors. For once, if 
but for a century or two, the Celtic spirit dominated 
a large part of the Western World, and Celtic ideals 
imparted a new life to a decadent civilization. 

I need not here repeat the story of the English con- 
quest. Throughout it was the chief object of English 
diplomacy to keep the people in slavish subjugation, 
not to grant them any rights, not to respect or safe- 
guard their interests, but to exploit the rich resources 
of the country for the benefit of England alone. The 
whole of Ireland was again and again declared for- 
feited. No attempt was ever made to build up a. com- 
mon civilization. Laws enacted applied to the f oreiga 



Ireland in Olden Days 229 

settlers alone; the natives were regarded as outside 
the law, as outlaws. From the time of Henry VIII. 
into the last century the history of Ireland is a tale 
of unmitigated woe. No country, no people, ever suf- 
fered so long and so much. 

Strange, indeed, are the ironies of fate. The 
descendants of the native land-owners, who 
were driven from Ireland by the invaders, saw 
their land given to the officers and soldiers of 
invading armies. The exiles have prospered in 
foreign lands. The ascendent class in Ireland, 
who have lived on these stolen lands for genera- 
tions, are now giving up their lives in Flanders 
and at the Dardanelles, and in the Balkans, lest 
a German invasion of Ireland may restore these 
estates to the rightful heirs, exiled and scat- 
tered over the world. We are told that the mills 
of the gods grind slowly and they grind exceed- 
ing fine, or that we su:ffer from the crimes of our 
ancestors. However that may be, there is 
scarcely a landlord family in Ireland, con- 
nected with the invasions of Ireland, but has 
lost one or more sons in this war, and usually 
the oldest and heir to the estate. In some fam- 
ilies all of the boys have been killed or wounded. 
They are brave men from all accounts, but suf- 



230 What Could Germany Do For Ireland? 

fering from the very social system which they 
enforced on the poor people who will not go to 
the front to fight and die for the aristocratic 
army set. Among the list of Irish casualties we 
find such inveterate enemies of the cause of 
Irish freedom in Ulster, whence the writer 
comes, as the Duke of Abercorn, Lord Hamilton, 
Marquis of Londonderry, the Earls of Amesly, 
Eanfurly, Erne, Caledon, Kilmorey, Clanwil- 
liam. Lords Templeton, Clanmonis, Dunleath, 
LiEord, Belmore, and many others, descended 
from the soldiers of Cromwell and William, 
Prince of Orange, or Queen Elizabeth. 



CHAPTER XV 

lEELAND UNDER lEISH PARLIAMENTS 

During the past seven hundred years England has 
in no instance observed in good faith a single prom- 
ise or pledge made to Ireland nor to the world at 
large, unless through self-interest or fear. Dr. 
Thomas Addis Emmet. 

In the foregoing chapter some indication of 
Ireland's religious, social and commercial pre- 
eminence in Europe in early days was sketched 
to show the Celtic culture long forgotten. It is 
important to speak briefly of the political gov- 
ernment created and enjoyed by the Irish 
people themselves in the centuries of their ex- 
istence as a distinct race in Europe. A large 
number of persons live in the belief that Ireland 
always was ruled by and from England, Ire- 
land's self-styled ^^rich and generous sister.'' 
Hence it is necessary to say that up to the year 
1800 A. D., Ireland was ruled by laws framed 
and passed by Irish Parliaments, operating 
within the confines of Ireland. In the year 1800 
the Parliaments of Ireland and England became 

231 



232 What Could Germany Do For Ireland? 

united for the first time. The story of that 
union is most discreditable and infamous, ac- 
cording to the late William E. Gladstone. Those 
not conversant with its sordid and tragic de- 
tails might, as a beginning, study the English 
historian Lecky's narrative of the most infa- 
mous chapter in the inglorious history of Brit- 
ish rule in Ireland. From the coming of the 
Normans to Ireland in 1169 down to 1800 Anglo- 
Irish Parliaments, chiefly in the English inter- 
est, were held irregularly in Ireland, but it was 
such legislatures and not the English House of 
Commons that made laws for the government 
of Ireland. From 1169 away back to the dawn 
of history in Europe, Ireland was ruled over by 
Parliaments centered in Ireland, and in which 
the whole national life of the country was fully 
and truly represented. 

Let us briefly review the first of such institu- 
tions. Writes the English historian Plowden: 

The grand epoch of political eminence in the early 
history of the Irish is the reign of their great and 
favorite monarch, Olamh Fodlah, who flourished, ac- 
cording to Keating, about 950 before Christ. Under 
him was established the great Feis at Teamair or 
Tara, which was, in fact, a triennial convention of 
the states, or a Parliament. The monarch and the 



Ireland Under Irish Parliaments 233 

provincial and other kings, who had exclusive power 
in their hands, on one side, and the philosophers and 
Druids, together with the deputies of the people, on 
the other, formed the whole of this ancient legisla- 
ture. When the great council was convened, previous 
to entering on business they sat down to sumptuous 
entertainments for six days successively. Very 
minute accounts are given by the Irish annalists of 
the magnificence and order of these entertainments, 
from which we may collect the earliest traces of 
heraldry that occur in history and deduce that par- 
tiality for family distinctions which to this day forms 
a striking part of the Irish national character. . . . 
To preserve order and regularity in the great number 
and variety of the guests who met together on those 
occasions, when the banquet was ready to be served 
up, the shield-bearers of the princes and other mem- 
bers of the convention delivered in their masters' 
shields, which were readily distinguished by the coats 
of arms emblazoned upon them. These were arranged 
by the Grand Marshal and principal herald upon the 
walls upon the right sides of the table, and upon en- 
tering, each member took his seat under his respective 
shield without the slightest disturbance. The first 
six days were not spent in disorderly reveling or ex- 
cess, but were particularly devoted to the examining 
and settling of the historical antiquities and annals 
of the kingdom. They were publicly rehearsed and 
privately inspected by a select committee of the most 
learned of the members. When they had passed the 
approbation of the assembly they were transcribed 
into the authentic chronicles of the nation, which was 
called ''The Eegister of the Psalm of Tara." 

Of such was the constitution of the first of 
the triennial Parliaments established in Ireland 



234 What Could Germany Do For Ireland? 

by her native rulers, and snch was the ordinance 
that guided the deliberations of similar Parlia- 
ments held in Ireland without break down to 
the coming of the English to Ireland. Under 
their grave, deliberate and wise guidance Ire- 
land prospered commercially and developed a 
civilization, one of the highest to be met with 
in the world of that day. At the National As- 
sembly of Drumceat, held near Derry in 574 
A. D., the claim of the Dalriadic King of Scot- 
land to be independent of the King of Ireland 
was allowed. The last of these native Irish 
Parliaments was held under Roderick O'Con- 
nor, High King of Ireland when the Normans 
first landed in Ireland. Thenceforth, from the 
council held in Lismore by Henry II. of Eng- 
land in 1172, Anglo-Irish Parliaments met oc- 
casionally down to 1800. England 's first, step 
towards making laws in the English Parliament 
for Ireland was taken in the year 1494, when, at 
Drogheda, she had the then Anglo-Saxon Par- 
liament pass Poyning's law into force, by which 
the heads of bills to be introduced into the Irish 
Parliament were first to be submitted to Eng- 
land for her approval. This enactment was 



Ireland Under Irish Parliaments 235 

aimed at the ultimate extinction of the Anglo- 
Irish Parliament in Ireland. In 1689 King 
James II. held Parliament in Dublin, the first 
act of which was to declare **that the English 
Parliament had not, and never had, any right 
to legislate for Ireland, and that none save the 
King and Parliament of Ireland could make 
laws to bind Ireland." Writing of this period 
of Irish history, the illustrious Thomas Davis 
said : 

This Parliament exercised less severity than any of 
its time ; it established liberty of conscience and equal- 
ity of creeds ; it proscribed no man for his religion — 
the word Protestant does not occur in any Act ; it in- 
troduced many laws of great practical value in the 
business of society; it removed the disabilities of the 
natives, the scars of old fetters; it was generous to 
the king, yet carried its own opinions out against his 
where they differed ; it, finally — and what should win 
the remembrance and veneration of Irishmen of all 
time — boldly announced our national independence, 
in words which Molyneux shouted on to Swift, and 
Swift to Lucas, and Lucas to Flood, and Flood and 
Grattan redoubling the cry ; Dungannon Church rang^ 
and Ireland was again a nation. Yet, something it 
said escaped the hearing or surpassed the vigor of the 
last century ; it said, * ' Irish commerce fostered, ' ' and 
it was faintly heard, but it said, ''An Irish navy to 
shield our coasts,'' and it said, ''An Irish army to 
scathe the invaders, ' ' and Grattan neglected both, and 
our coast had no guardian, and our desecrated fields 
knew no avenger. 



236 What Could Germ-any Bo For Ireland? 

We hurry on to Grattan's Parliament, the 
last and most remarkable of Anglo-Irish Par- 
liaments held in Ireland, and the one which 
finally was corrupted into betraying the rights 
and liberties of the Irish nation into the custody 
of perfidious England. This Parliament did 
not represent the whole people of Ireland, inas- 
much as Catholics were excluded from its por- 
tals and deliberations, and then, as now, Catho- 
lics formed the overwhelming majority of the 
population of Ireland. The Parliament was in 
every sense the Parliament of the English gar- 
rison in Ireland. It was a pliable tool in the 
hands of the cunning English statesmen of that 
day. But rotten as its very nature was, still, 
backed up by the swords of the Irish Volun- 
teers, it achieved much for the good of the coun- 
try, and had it been let live, indications were 
not wanting that after the lapse of a short space 
of time, it would have come to recognize that 
the people of Ireland — the Catholics of the 
country — were entitled to representation in the 
Parliament of Ireland, and that religious be- 
lief should be no detriment to entry into the 
Parliament of the land. 



Ireland Under Irish Parliaments 237 

The teachings of the French Eevolution had 
found their way into Ireland. Men began to 
aspire to a fuller measure of freedom than was 
so far permitted to them by England. The war 
with America had reduced England's military 
power to such an extent that when the Irish 
coast was threatened with invasion from Amer- 
ican and French privateers, neither men, mu- 
nitions nor money were available for the pur- 
pose of defending the coasts of the country. In 
reply to a message from the municipal head of 
Belfast, the secretary to the English Lord Lieu- 
tenant of Ireland of that day wrote : * ^ His Ex- 
cellency can at present send no further military 
aid to Belfast than a troop or two of horse or 
part of a company of invalids.'' This declared 
incapacity of the British rulers of Ireland to 
repel possible invaders brought about the birth 
of the Irish Volunteers, who suddenly sprang 
into existence as a splendidly equipped, dis- 
ciplined and effective national army, dependent 
only upon the patriotism of the people. Catho- 
lics were not at first admitted into its ranks, 
though out of their patriotism they contributed, 
from the birth of the movement, to its financial 



238 What Could Germany Do For Ireland? 

support. In a short time the Irish Volunteers 
numbered fully 100,000 armed men, officered by 
some of the leading nobles of the land. A spirit 
of practical patriotism animated them from 
their foundation. They aimed first at ensuring 
the commercial prosperity of their country, 
and ultimately succeeded in winning complete 
legislative independence for Ireland. The ef- 
fect of the Volunteer movement of that day on 
the country was electric ; its effect on the Brit- 
ish Government was even more so. So dan- 
gerous for the English occupation of Ireland 
had the movement become that the English Par- 
liament passed a law ''to allow Ireland free 
trade in wool, woolens, glass, leather, and all 
other forms of manufacture, to all the ports of 
the British colonies and plantations hitherto 
closed to her commerce.'' This measure, the 
offspring of fear, was hailed throughout Ire- 
land as a victory for the Volunteers and for 
their illustrious spokesman and leader, Henry 
Grattan. A greater humiliation was in store 
for England. The people of Ireland were con- 
vinced that the only guarantee for the perma- 
nence of the concessions gained was in the com- 



Ireland Under Irish Parliaments 239 

plete independence of the Irish Parliament. On 
April 16, 1782, Henry Grattan moved, and the 
Irish Parliament passed, resolutions demand- 
ing the repeal of the English Act 6th of George 
I., which averred that acts of the English Par- 
liament were binding on Ireland; protesting 
against mutilation or suppression by the Eng- 
lish Privy Council of acts passed by the Irish 
House of Commons, and finally, proclaiming 
that 

the Kingdom of Ireland is a distinct kingdom, with a 
Parhament of her own, and that there is no body of 
men competent to make laws to bind the nation but 
the King, Lords and Commons of Ireland, nor any 
Parliament which hath any power or authority of 
any sort in this kingdom save only the Parliament of 
Ireland. 

The unanimity of the whole people of Ireland, 
the military power and preparedness of the 
Irish Volunteers, and the enfeebled condition of 
England compelled her to renounce forever any 
right or title to make laws to bind the people of 
Ireland. This Act of Eenunciation of 1782 still 
remains unrevoked on the statute book of the 
English House of Commons. How the freedom 
thus won for Ireland became subsequently un- 



240 What Could Germany Do For Ireland^ 

done; how the Irish Parliament became in a 
few short years merged into that of England, is 
a tale of baseness and blackguardism, than 
which, in the words of Gladstone, there was no 
*^ blacker or fouler transaction in the history of 
mankind." There merely remain to be told 
briefly some of the blessings which came to Ire- 
land as a result of the domestic legislation of 
Grattan's Parliament. Let Miss Murray, in 
her historic book, **The Commercial Relations 
of Ireland and England, ' ' speak on our behalf : 

The industrial aspect of Ireland rapidly changed. 
Ruined factories sprang into life and new ones were 
built. The old corn mills which had ceased working 
so long were everywhere busy. The populations of 
the towns began to increase. The standard of living 
among the artisan class rose, and even the condition 
of the peasantry changed slightly for the better. 
Dublin, instead of being sunk in decay, assumed the 
appearance of a thriving town. In fact, the inde- 
pendent Irish legislature set itself to promote the 
material prosperity of the country in every possible 
way, and there is no doubt its efforts had much to say 
to the really surprising commercial progress which 
was made from 1780 until the years immediately pre- 
ceding the Union. The Irish fisheries became the envy 
and admiration of Great Britain, and agriculture in- 
creased rapidly. Various manufactures in Ireland 
began to thrive; the manufacture of hats, boots and 
shoes, of candles and soap, of blankets and carpets, of 
woolens, of printed cottons and fustians, of cabinets 
and of glass, all sprang into importance, while linen 



Ireland Under Irish Parliaments 241 

manufacture, which had decayed during the American 
war, quickly revived, and in ten years the exports of 
various kinds doubled. 

Such was the condition of Ireland nnder the 
blessings of a resident and independent legis- 
lature. The world would do well to realize that 
civilization as a whole stands to benefit immeas- 
urably by the successful and speedy termina- 
tion of Ireland's age-long fight against English 
government in Ireland. That is the one lesson 
that Ireland's checkered past teaches to those 
who approach the study of the subject with an 
open and unprejudiced mind. The peace of 
Europe and the freedom of the seas are guar- 
anteed by a free and prosperous Ireland. 



CHAPTER XVI 

THE WOELD's EECOED BEOKEN IN FINANCE 

The achievements of Germany at home are 
fully as great as her triumphs on the battle- 
fields of Europe. The stress of war has brought 
out the finest qualities of the world's superior 
human organization. In England the business 
world seems to be divided into two classes — 
one section self-sacrificing and patriotic, the 
other working overtime to make money out of 
the war, shirking duty and disgracing their 
country before the world. In Russia we expect, 
at all times, corrupt officialdom, which does not 
prevail in England, but the spirit of greed has 
long corroded the business men of England, and 
not even the perils of failure and invasion can 
make them turn in for universal patriotic ser- 
vice and emulate or imitate the Germanic spirit 
of solidarity. 

Although Germany has been cut off from 
trading with the world by British control of the 
seas, at the end of the first year of the war her 
business condition amazed all men by the show- 

242 



The World's Record BroJcen in Finance 243 

ing of national stability and the strength and 
success of her manufacturing establishments 
operating under the severest economic pressure. 

The United States Consular and Trade Ee- 
port for September 17, 1915, gives the earnings 
of the 3,788 German stock corporations for the 
past year. The combined capital of these com- 
panies is some three billions of dollars. At the 
end of the year the working capital had been 
increased a hundred millions of dollars. The 
average net earnings were eleven per cent., as 
against thirteen per cent, for the preceding 
year. The average dividend declared was six 
per cent., as against eight per cent, for the year 
previous. Does any American think he could 
find our 3,788 leading corporations, with our 
country at peace, earning eleven per cent. 1 

The much exploited Anglo-French loan of 
$500,000,000 negotiated by American bankers 
will scarcely pay the war expenses for ten days 
of England and France, as the war is now cost- 
ing England alone $25,000,000 per day. 

England, to the wonder of the neutral world, 
is also taking second place to Germany in war 
financing. Unable to liquidate its bills, after a 



244 What Could Germany Do For Ireland^ 

year of disaster, England is passing the plate 
around in America, and her commissioners are 
undergoing considerable humiliation. They 
were sadly misled as to the state of public opin- 
ion in America. The Anglo-American section 
of the press heralded their coming as an assured 
success the moment they arrived. They were 
sure to have a billion, or even two billions, of 
dollars at a low rate of interest, all the notes 
backed jointly by England, Prance and Russia. 
Hands across the sea meant something more 
than Yankee munitions of war at big profits to 
Americans and the constant draining of the 
British exchequer. 

Of course, the generous American capitalists, 
always mindful of the fate of Belgium and the 
protection of British arms for small nations, 
might consider that England was the saviour of 
weak nations and forget that the British Em- 
pire was a confederacy of small nations. Alas ! 
the commission knew not Wall Street, where 
the only nerve is the pocket nerve. There was 
no popular interest in the loan, and the public 
would have none of it. The banks of the West 
dare not touch it because of the feeling over the 



The World's Record Brohen in Finance 245 

proposition displayed by their depositors. The 
Irish depositors organized successful meetings 
at various points, and there was not one Irish- 
American found who publicly endorsed the loan. 
The largest single American manufacturer, 
Henry Ford, of Detroit, pronounced the trans- 
action to be the most disgraceful financial inci- 
dent in our history. Many of our leading Amer- 
ican citizens came forward and denounced the 
loan as an unneutral and immoral act in word 
and deed. 

Eussia was dropped from the participation — 
a severe blow to the original plan — because her 
weight is crushing England. Outside of the 
Morgan interests, the Wall Street financial 
leaders, with few exceptions, are Jews. The 
railway magnate, James J. Hill, of St. Paul, 
born under the British flag, endeavored to line 
up Jacob Schiff for the plan. Mr. Hill was com- 
pelled to retreat for home in short order. The 
Jews are the most successful financiers in every 
city in the world, but they never forget or for- 
give the persecution of their race or religion. 
Money to Russia from the Jews would be re- 
garded by them as blood money, and the power 



246 What Could Germany Do For Irelandf 

of British gold could not pass the race and re- 
ligious barrier. Outside of the bankers inter- 
ested in munition plants and subsidiary con- 
cerns, there was no real American sympathy 
for the loan, and with the aid of German, Jew- 
ish and Irish depositors the amount and terms 
of the loan were so changed from the first as to 
be considered practically a failure, as most of 
the money was supplied by munition directors. 
While this negotiation was under way and 
England was still begging for less onerous 
terms from her United States investors, the As- 
sociated Press announced to an expectant finan- 
cial world the result of the third subscription in 
Germany, which broke the world's record of all 
financial operations. The sum total of the third 
loan is 

Twelve BiLLioisr Maeks 
Three Thousand Mh^lion Dollars 

This sum fairly staggers the imagination. 
With poor old Ireland staggering now under the 
burdens of only $100,000,000 of the war debt, 
what Satanic leadership is it that asks her un- 
trained peasants to stand up against three thou- 



The WorWs Record Broken in Finance 247 

sand million dollars and the 42 centimeter guns 
that the Germans know so well how to make and 
use from this colossal sum total of funds 1 "When 
England declared war on Germany she sounded 
the financial doom of the British Empire. The 
writer was ridiculed in London last fall for 
stating that Germany would finance the war 
within her borders and that England would be 
driven to ask for outside aid ; that the German 
people, in the mass, were more prosperous, 
thrifty, capable and healthy than the English 
people crowded in cities. 

One of the managers of the Bank of Ireland 
in Dublin (an English concern) told us that 
Germany could not raise more than $3,000,000,- 
000 at the utmost, and would be starved out in 
a year. The German war loans total $6,250,- 
000,000. The talk of starving Germany is 
ended, while the misery and living of the fam- 
ilies in the single-room, foul tenements of Dub- 
lin beggar description. 

The British system of *' muddling through '^ 
makes a coalition cabinet of discordant poli- 
ticians a composite picture of the people, lack- 
ing in training and special knowledge. 



248 What Could German^/ Do For Ireland? 

Mr. Lloyd George has many of the political 
qualities found in our own William J. Bryan. 
The best friends of the Commoner would not 
suggest him for Secretary of the Treasury. 
Lloyd George had to give way to McKenna, an- 
other politician without expert financial experi- 
ence. Churchill, a politician without naval 
training, injuring the prestige of his country 
by naval breaks resulting in sea disasters, is 
forced out by clamor and replaced by Balfour, a 
Tory politician. Lloyd George is now in charge 
of munition factories instead of some great 
business expert in that line. 

Contrast the great experts in each special 
line that make up the German cabinet and the 
German staff. A von Tirpitz, a veritable child 
of the seas, is at the head of the German Ad- 
miralty. His work, wonderful inventions and 
their consequences are seen every day and 
night. 

The Secretary of the German Treasury is no 
clever politician chosen to placate a faction in 
the post where the army and navy would be of 
little avail should he fail. The head of the Ger- 
man Imperial Treasury is a trained banker, 



The World's Record Broken in Finance 249 

perhaps the foremost in Europe, director of the 
Deutsche Bank, which has no counterpart in 
Europe. In one of my works, **The King, the 
Kaiser, and Irish Freedom, '^ I often quoted him 
as an authority on the material progress of his 
country, and his statement as to the greatest 
financial operation in the world ^s history is 
worth studying on the part of every student of 
history. Dr. HelfEerich said: 

The present loan enables the Government to liqui- 
date Treasury bills taken over by the Reichsbank and 
other banks, provides Germany with money for the 
winter campaign and renders unnecessary the rais- 
ing of another loan before March. 

England hitherto has raised $1,062,500,000 and 
Germany $6,250,000,000 in long-term loans, whereas 
England's war expenditures up to the present time 
are hardly less than Germany's, and soon will ex- 
ceed Germany's. For England is now spending 
nearly $25,000,000 daily against Germany's not much 
above $15,000,000. That means that Germany is 
spending 25 cents per capita daily, and England 55 
cents. I doubt, therefore, whether England's finan- 
ciers possess confidence that their resources will out- 
last ours. 

Everything said abroad about Germany putting on 
pressure and using force to secure subscriptions to 
the loan is a pure invention. We appealed solely to 
the financial power and patriotism of our fellow-citi- 
zens. Our success must open the world's eyes to a 
recognition of how strong is Germany's financial 
power and how strong her will. 

I am confident that the success of this loan, which 



250 What Could Germany Do For Ireland? 

proves that we are standing firmly upon our own 
feet, will contribute toward the good relations be- 
tween Germany and the United States, notwithstand- 
ing the Morgan-Holden incident. Independence is 
the first word in American history, as well as the first 
word of true friendship. America cannot class us 
among her poor relations. 



ABLE TO FIGHT INDEFINITELY 

Dr. Helfferich asserted that Germany was 
able financially to continue the war indefinitely. 
Her people, he said, were earning higher wages 
and saving more money than in peace times. 
The country was supplying its own needs and 
buying little abroad, and making no debts to 
foreign countries. 

In conclusion, the Secretary said that a 
shortage in supplies of some raw materials, 
like cotton and wool, might cause inconvenience, 
but the people were learning to economize. Old 
woolen clothing was being reworked into shoddy 
and coats could be worn shorter. Substitutes 
for some materials were being found, he added. 

$3,007,500,000 suBscEiBED 

It is officially announced that subscriptions to 
the third German war loan have reached a total 



The World's Record BroJcen in Finance 251 

of $3,007,500,000, the Overseas News Agency 
says. The news agency states : 

These figures, showing the immense success of the 
loan, will be still further increased, as returns from 
some parts of the nation are still to be received. 

The Overseas News Agency added that Rob- 
ert J. Thompson, for many years American 
consul at Hanover, and now living at The 
Hague, had subscribed $125,000 to the loan. 

Dresden and vicinity subscribed 255,000,000 
marks ($63,750,000), as compared with 211,000,- 
000 marks for the March loan. Cassel sub- 
scribed 100,000,000 marks, as compared with 
77,000,000 in March; the Duesseldorf branch of 
the Eeichsbank, 468,000,000, as against 280,000,- 
000; the Dortmund branch, with four adjacent 
offices, 77,000,000, as against 32,000,000; the 
Berlin Municipal Savings Bank, 48,000,000, as 
against 36,000,000. 

To illustrate the heavy participation of small 
subscribers, it is stated that nearly 45,000 de« 
positors of the Berlin Savings Bank subscribed 
to the loan, as compared with 35,000 in March. 

In her treatment of Ireland the predominat- 
ing partner in the British Empire has never ap- 



252 What Could Germany Do For Ireland? 

plied any of the business principles that have 
made each German state so powerful and pros- 
perous and willing to furnish the last man for 
the preservation of the confederacy of states. 
There are no pro-German-English sympathizers 
in Germany, secret or otherwise, and few rene- 
gade Germans anywhere. How different the 
feeling in many parts of Ireland and in all parts 
of America where men and women of Celtic 
blood abound ! The unparalleled success of the 
German loan was cheered at many gatherings of 
the so-called ^^ hyphenated'^ pro-German Irish- 
Americans. Lloyd George said the last $500,- 
000,000 and the workshops of England would 
win the war. Germany has shown that she pos- 
sesses both the skill and the money to maintain 
successful warfare and to subsist, in part, on 
the lands of enemies. Young Ireland can well 
afford to ponder on the causes which have made 
the German state so prolific and created stand- 
ards of life and patriotism so high that the best 
friends of England know she never can attain 
that pinnacle. The German philosophy which 
has made possible these achievements in her 
business world is founded on the following 



The World's Record Broken in Finance 253 

principles, as expressed by the head of the Ger- 
man Treasury, Dr. Karl Helfferich : 

The power that creates and increases the wealth of 
a people is labor — from the purely manual labor of 
the wage-earner to the purely intellectual labor of 
the scholar. 

The vehicle of labor is man, or — as regards the 
whole state — the population. 

The result of labor is the production of goods. 

The productivity of labor is intensified by perfect- 
ing technical equipment and organization. 

For the people as a whole the increased efficiency 
of labor finds expression in the statistics of produc- 
tion, trade, and transportation. 

The final purpose of economic labor is consumption. 

The surplus of goods produced over and above the 
necessary expense of production constitutes the in- 
come of the people. 

The surplus of the income of the people over their 
consumption constitutes the increment of the public 
well-being. 

The ideal economic development is that a growing 
population be able to increase the net efficiency of 
its labor, and thereby its ' ' income, ' ' to such a degree 
that, at the same time, a higher standard of life — in 
other words, a more plentiful satisfaction of material 
and intellectual wants — and an enhancement of the 
public wealth be attained. 

The extent of the German war achievements 
in Europe is not to be measured by the hun- 
dreds of thousands of miles of enemies' terri- 
tory. More important is the value and charac- 
ter of the captured zones. In Eussia the Ger- 



254 What Could Germany Do For Ireland? 

mans liave taken over sixty per cent, of tlie iron, 
steel and metal districts of the country and 
thirty per cent, of the oil. In France they hold 
eighty-five per cent, of the iron and steel supply 
and sixty per cent, of the coal output, or 10,- 
000,000 tons of coal per annum. They control 
a good part of the machinery sectors of France. 
The Balkan drive gives them control of new 
iron and steel territory, and copper, and in the 
Black Sea district are valuable iron works. Be- 
fore the war the German steel output was 550,- 
000 tons per month; at present it has reached 
1,200,000 tons per month. Military experts at 
Washington agree that such strategy increases 
German chances of success. 



CHAPTER XVII 

NEW LIGHT ON THE CAUSES OF THE WAB 

Sie liaben mir das Schwert in die Hand gedriickt: 
ich kann nicht anders (They have forced the sword 
into my hand: I cannot do otherwise). — Emperor 
William of Germany. 

The writer was amazed last fall on returning 
from Europe to find that Great Britain had been 
successful in moulding public opinion to the firm 
belief that England went to war over Belgium 
to save a small nation. 

The position of Germany was misrepresented 
in every quarter. The cutting of the cables 
early in the war by England prevented Ameri- 
cans from hearing the other side, and when the 
belated defence of Germany came to hand, pub- 
lic opinion was rigidly set, and even for a time 
many Germans believed that England sought 
only the rescue of Belgium, and was controlled 
by altruistic motives. 

The events of the past year and the soberness 
of time have raised the curtain somewhat, and 
there are millions of doubters and scoffers of 

255 



256 What Could Germany Do For Ireland? 

England on the subject of Belgium thronghont 
the United States in the fall of 1915, especially 
as British troops have invaded Greece, despite 
treaties and international law. 

The American people still have the deepest 
sympathy for the sufferings of the people of 
Belgium, and they are certain to continue their 
wonderful charities which have gone forth to 
Belgium from the goodness of their hearts. 
But the opinion that England went to war over 
Belgium no longer is general in the United 
States. An increasing number of observers 
have succeeded in carrying the conviction, as 
thought works itself clear, that the real cause 
for England declaring war on Germany was 
caused by jealousy and envies arising from the 
industrial and commercial triumphs of Ger- 
many in all parts of the world. 

John Bull always makes it a point to be 
ringed round with alliances and then fight the 
next strongest man. The history of the past 250 
years shows that England invariably has fought 
to destroy her next nearest competitor in trade. 

When Christopher Columbus landed on the 
island of San Salvador in October, 1492, Spain 



New Light on the Causes of the War 257 

was then, and remained for nearly two cen- 
turies, the dominant maritime figure of the 
globe. England went to war with Spain, and 
when Drake sent the Spanish Armada to the 
bottom of the sea England took the place of 
Spain and has held the control of the sea up to 
the present. When Holland and Denmark 
threatened English rule of the seas with their 
enterprising competition, England destroyed 
the commerce of both countries. The defeat of 
France at the hands of England on several oc- 
casions when France had become the second 
strongest nation on the water is well known in 
history. When France lost her vast colonies in 
America and the West Indies as a result of Eng- 
lish naval victories, the star of France set once 
and for all as a great maritime power, which 
was the chief reason why France supported the 
American Revolution. 

When, after twenty years of successful com- 
mercial rivalry with England on the high seas, 
the young American merchant marine was 
threatening English commerce, with her fast 
clippers penetrating all the harbors of the 
world, England sought a quarrel with the 



258 What Could Germany Do For Ireland? 

United States, which resulted in the war of 1812 
and the defeat of Great Britain. 

London has realized for many years that the 
growing alliance between Eussia and France 
meant war with Germany. With enemies on 
the other side of most of her borders, Germany 
must find herself always prepared. As far back 
as February 17, 1887, the London Dailg Stand- 
ard said : 

Russia can afford to wait. So can France. Ger- 
many cannot. Germany must see to its own safety, 
and Prince Bismarck cannot reasonably be expected 
to pass his declining days impotently watching the 
silent conspiracy for the silent growth of the power 
of France and the power of Russia against the Father- 
land. 

We are not obliged at this late hour to take 
the opinion of American writers as to the causes 
of the war. There is no more courageous or 
patriotic man in England than J. R. MacDonald, 
Member of Parliament. In criticizing Sir Ed- 
ward Grey for plunging England into a war 
that is neither just nor necessary, Mr. MacDon- 
ald said : 

During the negotiations Germany tried to meet our 
wishes on certain points so as to secure our neutrality. 
Sometimes her proposals were brusque, but no at- 



New Light on the Causes of the War 259 

tempt was made by us to negotiate diplomatically to 
improve them. They were all summarily rejected by 
Sir Edward Grey. Finally, so anxious was Germany 
to confine the limits of the war, the German Ambassa- 
dor asked Sir Edward Grey to propose his own con- 
ditions of neutrality, and Sir Edward Grey declined 
to discuss the matter. This fact was suppressed hy 
Sir Edward Grey and Mr. Asquith in their speeches 
in Parliament. When Sir Edward Grey failed to se- 
cure peace between Germany and Russia, he worked 
deliberately to involve us in the war, using Belgium 
as his chief excuse. That is the gist of the White 
Paper. It proves quite conclusively that those who 
were in favor of neutrality before the second of 
August ought to have remained in favor of it after 
the White Paper was published. That Sir Edward 
Grey should have striven for European peace and 
then, when he failed, that he should have striven with 
equal determination to embroil Great Britain, seems 
contradictory. But it is not, and the explanation of 
why it is not is the justification of those of us who for 
the last eight years have regarded Sir Edward Grey 
as a menace to the peace of Europe and his policy as 
a misfortune to our country. What is the explana- 
tion? 

Mr. MacDonald said that England had been 
so helplessly committed to fight for France and 
Eussia that Sir Edward Grey had to refuse 
point-blank every overture made by Germany to 
keep England out of the conflict. 

He scoffed at the German guarantee to Belgium on 
the ground that it only secured the '* integrity" of 
the country but not its independence; when the ac- 
tual documents appeared it was found that its inde- 



260 What Could Germany Do For Ireland? 

pendence was secured as well. And that is not the 
worst. The White Paper contains several offers 
which were made to us hy Germany aimed at securing 
our neutrality. None were quite satisfactory in their 
form and Sir Edward Grey left the impression that 
these unsatisfactory proposals were all that Germany 
made. Later on, the Prime Minister did the same. 
Both withheld the full truth from us. Sir Edward 
Grey declined to consider neutrality on any condi- 
tions and refrained from reporting this conversation 
to the House. Why? It was the most important pro- 
posal that Germany made. Had this been told by Sir 
Edward Grey, his speech could not have *worked up 
a war sentiment. The hard, immovable fact is that 
Sir Edward Grey had so pledged the country's honor 
without the country's knowledge to fight for France 
or Russia, that he was not in a position even to dis- 
cuss neutrality. That was the state of affairs on July 
20 and did not arise from anything Germany did or 
did not do after that date. 

Now, the apparent contradiction that the man who 
had worked for European peace was at the same time 
the leader of the war party in the Cabinet can be 
explained. Sir Edward Grey strove to undo the re- 
sult of his policy and keep Europe at peace, but, 
when he failed, he found himself committed to drag- 
ging his country into war. 

The justifications offered are nothing but the ex- 
cuses which ministers can always produce for mis- 
takes. Let me take the case of Belgium. It has teen 
known for years that, in the event of a war between 
Russia and France on the one hand and Germany on 
the other, the only possible military tactics for Ger- 
many to pursue were to attack France hot-foot 
through Belgium, and then return to meet the Rus- 
sians. 



New Light on the Causes of the War 261 

Of course, Mr. MacDonald, as a loyal citizen 
of England, has said nothing which could in- 
jure his country, since his fellow countrymen 
have been forced to die in the trenches, but he 
is not the only prominent Englishman who 
knows that Belgium served only as a pretext for 
England to enter the war against Germany. 
England had come to an understanding with 
France as far back as 1906 to take the side of 
France in the event of war with Germany. The 
preparations of the British and French army 
officers and naval authorities have been under- 
takings in common for the past nine years. The 
whole might of the empire was to be exercised 
to the limit as soon as Germany was at grips 
with the Franco-Eussian alliance. England had 
favored Japan in her war with Eussia through 
the Japanese war loan, and she has been forced, 
rather doubtfully, to support the determina- 
tion of Japan to oust Germany from China at 
the first opportunity ; thus England was able to 
draw Japan into the alliance against Germany. 

As soon as the star of Germany rose to shine 
with a peculiar brilliance on the commercial 
horizon, English diplomacy proceeded to make 



262 What Could Germany Do For I r eland f 

ties everywhere, including money and news- 
paper arrangements in the United States. 

In the administration of President Eoosevelt, 
when the late John Hay was Secretary of 
State, British diplomacy, aided by the leading 
American newspapers, almost succeeded in 
passing a treaty with the United States which, 
like the arrangement of England with France, 
would practically have made the United States 
an avowed ally of Great Britain, and this coun- 
try would have been expected, by the terms of 
that treaty, to have taken the side of England 
in her present war with Germany. In the me- 
moirs of Secretary of State John Hay, pub- 
lished in Harper's Monthly, August, 1915, Mr. 
Hay gives the credit to the Irish- American so- 
cieties for the defeat of this infamous treaty in 
the United States Senate. 

All the evidence of British diplomacy 
throughout the world for the past decade tends 
to support the conviction that she was getting 
ready for war with Germany. While the sol- 
diers of the regular English army have been 
maintained in times of peace at not more than 
300,000 in number, which, on the face of it, ap- 



New Light on the Causes of the War 263 

pears like a state of unpreparedness, we must 
always remember that England depends on her 
navy to sweep the seas and upon her allies to 
furnish the maximum of fighting men on the 
Continent. In none of the wars on the Con- 
tinent has England sent large armies until now. 
She has always relied on the strength of her 
invincible navy, her vast riches, colonies and 
diplomacy. The combined annual naval and 
military appropriations of England have fully 
equaled the German budget. Whenever Ger- 
many would proceed to build one battleship or 
other vessel of war, England would proceed to 
build two. It is not generally known today that 
England has three times as many submarines as 
Germany. The writer has talked with British 
army and naval officers at various times within 
the last dozen years, and has even heard them 
say that war with Germany was inevitable. At 
the time of the Boer War the English diplomats 
were counting on a struggle with Germany. If 
Germany wanted war with England, she could 
easily have taken advantage of her necessities 
in the Boer War before her alliance with France 
was completed and when England was suffering 



264 What Could Germany Do For Ireland? 

at the hands of the Boers. If Germany had 
seized this opportunity, she would have de- 
feated England and saved the Boer Eepublic. 
Her failure to save the Boers, who were people 
of her blood, is chiefly responsible for the pres- 
ent failure of the De Wet uprising in South 
Africa. If Germany had gone to the rescue of 
the Boers, she would today have been able to 
save her colonies in Africa, which have been lost 
to her, temporarily at least. England has given 
to the Boers a fair measure of home rule, which, 
combined with the declaration of Botha that 
Germany might have saved the Boer Eepublic 
in 1900, has done much to keep the Boers from 
joining the revolution. When the writer was in 
Dublin in the year 1900, returning army officers 
were counting on increasing the number of 
troops to keep Ireland in order, as many of the 
people of Ireland were active sympathizers and 
supporters of the Boers. 

Germany, as an ally of Austria-Hungary, 
could not in good faith desert the Dual Empire 
and turn the plains of Hungary over to the Rus- 
sian hosts. The heir to the Austro-Hungarian 
throne had been foully murdered by the Ser- 



New Light on the Causes of the War 265 

vians, who had butchered their own king and 
queen in bed. Germany said the Servian issue 
should be localized. Sir Edward Grey knew 
full well that Germany could never consent to 
his invitation to have a conference on the issue 
between Austria-Hungary and Servia, a plan 
which had been rejected by Eussia. And Sir 
Edward Grey had already informed the German 
ambassador that England would take the side 
of France if France entered the war, under the 
entente cordial, knowing full well. that France 
must align herself with Eussia if war was de- 
clared on the great empire north of Germany. 
In fact, Eussia began the mobilization of her 
army on July 24, 1914. On that very day, more 
than a week before England declared war, the 
English fleet was concentrated and ready for 
action, and French mobilization was also started 
on July 24th. Germany was the last to mobi- 
lize, so that there is absolutely no question but 
that England would have gone to war with Ger- 
many regardless of Belgian neutrality. She 
has always been lucky in a hypocritical plea for 
war in the name of ** morals and justice." In 
this way she has gobbled up most of the lands 



266 What Could Germany Do For Ireland? 

which have given her wealth and strength in 
this war. The Eoman colonies were unable to 
save Rome when the end of her destiny had 
come, and history may be repeated in the pres- 
ent desperate case of England. France would 
never have gone to war if she was not assured 
in advance of the support of England. Sir Ed- 
ward Grey said that England would have im- 
periled her honor and reputation if she failed 
her ally, France, later, in the game of slaughter 
that prevailed on August 3, 1914. England 
pleaded the excuse of Belgian neutrality for en- 
tering the fray. There is no doubt but that 
Germany was convinced that France had pre- 
viously agreed with Belgium to concentrate 
French troops in the vicinity of the fortress of 
Namur. Germany offered Belgium safety, in- 
dependence and indemnity, but Belgium was 
practically threatened with destruction by Eng- 
land, in a message from Sir Edward Grey, if 
she yielded to Germany. Her ties, blood and 
language were French — she was to be destroyed 
either way. 

When war was about to be declared, George 
Bernard Shaw, the foremost man of letters in 



New Light on the Causes of the War 267 

England, said the Belgium excuse was a fraud 
and a sham. The London Times said (weekly 
issue of March 12, 1915) : 

Herr von Bethmann-Hollweg is quite right. Even 
had Germany not invaded Belgium, honor and inter- 
est would have united us with France. For an im- 
pervious reason of self-interest we keep our word 
when we have given it, but we do not give it without 
solid practical reasons, and we do not set up to be 
international Don Quixotes, ready at all times to re- 
dress wrongs which do us no hurt. We joined the 
Triple Entente because we realized that the time of 
splendid isolation was no more. 

Writes Sir Henry Lucy in the New York 
Evening Sun, in August, 1915 : 

Writing to me during the first week of the war, 
Lord Fisher spoke enthusiastically of Winston 
Churchill's work at the Admiralty. "I am," he 
wrote, ''in close touch with Winston. He has been 
splendid for three things — first, the appointment to 
the command of the fleet of Jellicoe, a comparatively 
young admiral; second, mobilizing before war was 
declared; third, buying the two Turkish dreadnoughts 
approaching completion in a British dockyard." 

The appointment of Admiral Jellicoe has been jus- 
tified by the action of the navy during the past seven 
months. 

Mobilization of the fleet before the war upon the 
innocent pretext of an expected visit from the King 
was clever strategy that found the grand fleet op- 
portunely in the North Sea when, a few days later, 
war was declared, with the result of bottling up the 
German fleet in the helpless condition in which it 
remains to this day. 



268 What Could Germany Bo For Ireland? 

The consequence of the prompt assertion of right 
to commandeer the two first-class battleships, delivery 
of which Turkey was eagerly expecting, appears, on 
reflection upon the mischief they might have done 
since Turkey joined hands with Germany and Aus- 
tria, and more especially in the present situation at 
the Dardanelles. 



American students of history are not carried 
away by the popular feeling in the United 
States that England went to war to save the 
little state of Belgium. Nowhere in world his- 
tory has England furnished any precedent for 
such sacrifice. The British Empire is com- 
posed of crushed small nations whose liberties 
were originally destroyed by England in her 
consuming struggle for world power. The 
people of this country do not readily forget the 
fact that our own freedom and independence 
was won from England, and that we owe less to 
her for our own strength than any country in 
Europe. History teaches us that England al- 
ways finds a moral excuse for fighting the next 
strongest country and the nearest competitor 
to her on the high seas. 

The Spaniards were courageous and enter- 
prising, and they were the world's greatest 



New Light on the Causes of the War 269 

navigators, but they had become enervated with 
wealth and ease towards the end of the six- 
teenth century; and when Drake defeated the 
Spanish Armada, in the reign of Queen Eliza- 
beth, and pillaged Spain of her small state, then 
England began to dominate the high seas. 
Then came the sturdy and patient mariners of 
Holland, who developed a great commerce in 
the East Indies. Their merchant marine con- 
trolled the commerce which England coveted, 
and England did not hesitate to destroy this 
small nation. 

In 1812 the famous American clipper ships 
excited the envy of England and she attempted 
to drive our flag from the high seas, until An- 
drew Jackson, the son of an Irish linen weaver 
from Carrick Fergus, drove the last British sol- 
dier out of the country. 

England always fights the next strongest 
country, and will prove unfriendly to the United 
States just as certainly as we succeed in devel- 
oping a powerful merchant marine. England 
would never have declared war on Germany if 
the latter country had not threatened the com- 
merce of England in all parts of the world. 



270 What Could Germany Do For Ireland? 

The Irish people are generous and hospitable, 
often too soft-hearted. They have their weak- 
nesses and defects of character, which are ad- 
mitted by a number of their own writers. They 
are most good-hearted and kind to sufferers, 
though they be strangers. A common saying 
among Americans is : * * When I am sick, I want 
to have Irish neighbors." They know the bit- 
terness of poverty, and the real good ones would 
share their last crust with the stranger. Hos- 
pitality and kindness are two of their finest 
qualities, and proverbial. It is natural for these 
kind-hearted people to feel for the sufferings 
of others and to forget their own wrongs and 
hardships. This national characteristic is fit- 
tingly shown in the lines of the poet 'Reilly : 

What Is Good? 
"What is real good ? 
I ask, in musing mood. 
** Order," said the law court, 

** Knowledge, " said the school, 
* * Truth, ' ' said the wise man, 

* ' Pleasure, ' ^ said the fool, 
**Love," said the maiden, 

''Beauty," said the page, 
** Freedom," said the dreamer, 

''Home," said the sage, 
' ' Fame, ' ' said the soldier, 

* ' Equity, ' ' said the sir( 



New Light on the Causes of the War 271 

And speak my heart sadly, 

The answer is not here. 
Then within my bosom 

Softly this I heard: 
Each heart holds the secret, 

^^ Kindness" is the word. 

Hence it is that very many persons in Ire- 
land are so absorbed in sorrowing over the fate 
of Belgium and so saddened and depressed by 
the daily accounts of ** Belgian atrocities by 
Germans, '^ that they will not be reminded of 
the pages of 700 years of their country's his- 
tory. There is no Irish news service. All of 
the news printed in Ireland about the war is 
press censored and sent over from London. As 
an instance, the newspapers of Ireland have 
not yet printed the news of the sinking of the 
super-dreadnought battleship *' Audacious," al- 
though a year old. The vessel being sunk ofE 
Lough Swilly, Donegal, was known to many na- 
tives and naturally was of great local news in- 
terest. The only news they are permitted to 
read is of a character intended to excite their 
hearts against the Germans. These are lying 
tales of atrocities, alleged heinous attacks on 
priests, nuns, churches and hospitals. Early in 



272 What Could Germany Do For Ireland? 

ilae war the United States was fed on the same 

stuff, but the enterprise of the leading American 

news services sent their trained journalists to 

Belgium, who, together with such well-known 

writers as John T. McCutcheon, James O'Don- 

nell Bennett, Irvin S. Cobb, and just recently 

returned Professor George B. McClellan, of 

Princeton University, former Mayor of New 

New York City, have repudiated, in the interest 

of truth and justice, most of the cruel stories 

which continue to fill the Irish newspapers. 

The good-hearted peasantry have not only been 

taken in by the ^^ atrocity game," but they are 

wholly unaware of the fact that Germany was 

justified in invading Belgium for the following 

reasons : 

No. I. — Documents have been discovered in the 
Foreign Affairs offices marked confidential, in the 
handwriting of their counsel, which show that Eng- 
land would have dispatched troops to Belgium at 
once, without being asked for English assistance. 

No. II. — England agreed with Belgium in 1912 to 
dispatch 160,000 troops as an ally of Belgium. 

No. III.— In August, 1913, Field-Marshal Roberts 
said : * ' Our forces are ready to ejnbark instantly for 
Flanders to maintain the balance of power in 
Europe.'' 

No. IV. — Proof has been submitted showing that 



New Light on the Causes of the War 273 

Belgium, before the war, was a member of the coali- 
tion against Germany. 

No. V. — The plans for the French mobilization pre- 
pared before the war include this sentence: ''The 
First Army unites with the English and Belgian 
armies and, after passing through Belgium, occupies 
Cologne and Coblenz, and opposes the German forces 
advancing from Northern Germany." 

No. VI. — Germany was compelled to strike through 
Belgium or allow her enemy to assail her on the wholly 
unprotected Belgian frontier, risking the loss of Ger- 
many's most important coal and iron industries. 

No. VII. — After careful consideration by a num- 
ber of eminent American professors and other author- 
ities on international law, the opinion is gaining 
ground in this country that, Germany having merely 
asked for passage through Belgium, assuring her 
integrity and independence, there was no violation of 
neutrality, and that the course of Belgium, in view of 
the publication of later documents, proves that Bel- 
gium entered the war as an ally of France and Eng- 
land. 

The small army which England sent to the re- 
lief of Belgium discredits her as the so-called 
champion of small nations. The great army 
promised Belgium if she resisted the invasion 
never arrived, while the brave Walloons per- 
ished. The Antwerp fiasco is exposed to the 
world as desertion of the little country forced 
into the war by England and destroyed. 



CHAPTER XVm 

HOPES AND FEARS 

Despotism is out of date. We can govern India; 
we cannot govern Ireland. 

Be it so. Then let Ireland be free. She is miserable 
because she is unruled. We might rule her, but we 
will not, lest our arrangements at home might be in- 
terfered with. We cannot keep a i)eople chained to us 
to be perennially wretched because it is inconvenient 
for us to keep order among them. In an independent 
Ireland the ablest and strongest would come to the 
front, and the baser elements be crushed. The state 
of things which would ensue might not be satisfactory 
to us, but at least there would be no longer the inver- 
sion of the natural order which is maintained by the 
English connection and the compelled slavery of edu- 
cation and intelligence to the numerical majority. 
This, too, is called impossible — yet, if we will neither 
rule Ireland nor allow the Irish to rule themselves, 
nature and fact may tell us that, whether we will or 
no, an experiment that has lasted for seven hundred 
years shall be tried no longer. — James A. Froude : 
History of the English in Ireland, vol. iii., pp. 584, 
585. 

We have been told since childhood that the sole 
hope of Irish liberty depended on the perils of 
the British Empire when engaged in a great 
Continental war. The emergencies of England 
would create the Irish opportunity. Outnum- 

274 



Hopes and Fears 275 

bered ten to one, the Celt must succumb to the 
Saxon until the latter was drawn into battles 
with the great powers. That day has come at 
last. The histories of Ireland should be taken 
from our homes and destroyed if this plain phe- 
nomenon fails of recognition on the part of a 
dying race. All of the patriotic effort of cen- 
turies is lost if the remnants of a people fail in 
this crisis to grasp the last opportunity for free- 
dom that will ever be afforded them. The Irish 
race as a distinct race passes off the face of the 
earth as certainly as Erin is turned into a West 
British province. At the present time Ireland 
is more than one-fourth English in numbers and 
largely English in business and society. With 
England gaining year by year so enormously in 
population and wealth, and Ireland sinking and 
receding, the day is not far distant when the 
Irish national character will have disappeared 
and our children, after a few decades, will read 
the legends and traditions of a dead race with 
about as much curiosity and sympathetic in- 
terest as we read today of the lost American 
Indian tribes. Economic and political decay 
will hasten the end of pure Irish art, manners, 



276 What Could Germany Do For Ireland? 

customs and literature. Her birth rate is alarm- 
ingly low ; the most robust and ambitious young, 
virile men and women have left her shores, 
never to return, leaving the weak and poorest 
of the stock as the majority of the remnants of 
a decaying race to face a rapidly changing com- 
plex economic system, before which crushing 
forces few survive in the fierce competition of 
the wealth and power of her neighbor. Ireland 
cannot stand alone. To live and prosper and 
occupy a real place in the world's affairs, she 
must become an integral part of an alliance 
composed of strong nations. 

Michael Davitt is the father of the land act, 
the laws which have at last given the natives of 
Ireland an opportunity to buy and own the land 
of their country. In his work, ^*The Fall of 
Feudalism, ' ' Mr. Davitt writes : 

Why should we be denied, as a people, the freedom 
, which has made the small nations of Europe peace- 
ful, prosperous, and progressive? We have com- 
mitted no crime against mankind or civilization which 
should deprive us of these blessings. Small nations 
have been the truest pioneers of progress, and the 
best promoters of the arts and sciences, in the evolu- 
tion of society, from the Middle Ages to the present 
day. It is a common mistake to refer to Germany as 
an empire in the sense in which either Russia or Great 



Hopes and Fears 211 

Britain is an empire. It is nothing of the kind. It 
is a confederation of small states for defensive pur- 
poses, each state being as free and independent in all 
matters of national life and administration as if the 
German Empire had no existence. Bavaria, Saxony, 
"Wurtemberg, Baden, are nations with their own legis- 
latures like that of Prussia. This is why they are 
steadily developing in wealth and keeping in line with 
the general advance of other countries enjoying the 
rights and blessing of national freedom. 

There is not onfe of the belligerent nations, 
great or small, but claims to be defending na- 
tional ideals and aspirations. The principles of 
Irish nationality are the arches on which pri- 
marily rest all Irish social effort. This faith 
is the corner-stone of the Ancient Order of Hi- 
bernians ' structural organization in America, 
which body (200,000 members) condemns the 
advocates of recruiting in Ireland. This may 
be said to be the same view taken by practically 
all of the important and successful patriotic and 
benevolent Irish organizations in the United 
States. The writer received upward of 1,200 
letters of endorsement from the clergy on his 
book, **The King, the Kaiser, and Lrish Free- 
dom, ' ' and they must have spoken the views of 
most of their parishioners. 

Michael Davitt was a leader of Ireland who 



278 What Could Germany Do For Ireland? 

spurned public office and social influence be- 
cause he saw they were rocks on which many 
parliamentarians had been dashed. He did not 
go so far as Dean Swift, who said, ^ ' Burn every- 
thing English except her coal," but to the end 
he realized there could be nothing in common 
between the two nations so far as national aspi- 
rations were concerned. Davitt had seen much 
of England, Ireland and the United States. In 
1846 he saw his father and mother evicted from 
their home by British soldiers and left on the 
roadside to starve. He saw them begging for 
bread on the streets of English cities. As a 
child he lost his right arm in an English fac- 
tory. In the year 1870 he was sentenced to 
fifteen years at hard labor in prison, released 
in 1877, settled in Brooklyn, New York, and 
there planned the land movement, which 
brought into being the great Land League, 
which raised several millions of dollars in the 
United States and went a long way towards the 
destruction of feudalism in the Green Isle, and 
once again revived and saved the spirit of Irish 
nationality. 

My own views have not changed after thirty 



Hopes and Fears 279 

years' study of the relations of the two peoples. 
They were expressed in an address made by the 
present writer at Chicago on August 15, 1891, 
a day of celebration which represented the two 
dominant and indestructible features of the 
Celtic character — religion and patriotism. I 
said to the meeting : 

A separate Irish party could not have survived 
without the practical aid of the devoted men and 
women on this side. We yield to the party on tactics 
but never on principle. If they betray the cause of 
Emmet, of Tone, of Mitchel, we shall live to destroy 
them. If England is threatened by the fate that has 
overtaken all world powers, there must be left Celts 
who will save their own land from the common fate 
of such empires. Irish freedom and liberty hold a 
deeper meaning for us than mere pride in a senti- 
ment. No individual benefit will come to any Ameri- 
can from the success of the cause of the old land. 
Some of our most talented men and women have be- 
come impoverished working their lives out in this 
cause, hoping to see the light of the beacon fires of 
freedom burning on the shores of the Emerald Isle. 

And now, men of Chicago, a word on the present 
Irish question. Five years ago, in this great city, in 
this same Ogden's Grove, a multitude of Irish- Ameri- 
cans, numbering fully 30,000, listened to words of 
hope from the lips of a true patriot — ^Michael Davitt. 
Have those bright promises and hopeful prognostica- 
tions been fulfilled? Are the Irish people an inch 
nearer the goal of freedom? I point to the present 
condition of Ireland for my answer. The depopula- 
tion of her towns and cities has continued. The Home 
Kule proposition means a local, parochial government 



280 What Could Germany Do For Ireland? 

only, with no commercial advantages to the country. 
For the sake of ameliorating the wretched conditions 
we favor accepting any measure which offers relief. 
But as Irish Nationalists we repudiate and reject any 
such measure if offered as a final settlement of the 
immense debt of justice due the Irish nation from 
Great Britain. Ireland will never stand among the 
nations of the earth until she makes her own laws, in 
her own Parliament, in her own country, free from 
English interference. This is the cardinal doctrine 
of Irish Nationalism. 

Then let us close up the ranks, one for all, all for 
one. Let us be true to the memory of Robert Em- 
met and the cause of freedom. And never forget the 
cause of Irish liberty, which ever reverberates in our 
ears from the clanging of the chains in the prison 
dungeon to the dying benediction of '*God Save Ire- 
land" on the scaffold at Manchester. 



Some allowance is made for the fervent boy- 
ish diction nearly a quarter of a century old, 
but since that year the writer has travelled 
widely, studied the question of an Irish nation 
from many viewpoints, national and interna- 
tional, and is firm in the faith that Ireland can 
never hope to be saved except through being 
separated from England. The Home Eule bill 
is a mockery of independence in the face of the 
possibility that the highest national aspirations 
might be realized if the people were led by pa- 
triots of the old American Eevolutionary type. 



Hopes and Fears 281 

The most brilliant galaxy of young men and 
women of Ireland were the revolutionists of 
1848. They were republicans like the Giron- 
dists, and imbued with the spirit and prin- 
ciples of the American they loved the most — 
George "Washington. They were men of action, 
courageous to the last degree in the shadow of 
the scaffold, dying in dark dungeons or starv- 
ing on the hillsides for the eternal cause of free- 
dom. They were sent to convict settlements at 
the far ends of the earth, but in other lands 
these children of genius rose to eminence. 
Their revolt and rebellion were short-lived, but 
their labors and inspiration have not been in 
vain. 

Washington led a successful revolution 
finally against England and he lives for all time 
in the hearts of his countrymen. Failure would 
have meant his death at the hands of the hang- 
man, the fate of Robert Emmet. 

John Mitchel was born in County Derry, 
Ulster, November, 1815, and died in Cork in 
1875, sending his last message to loyal old Tip- 
perary, which county elected him to Parliament 
in his closing days. He was the son of a Protes- 



282 What Could Germany Do For Ireland^ 

tant clergyman, educated at Trinity College, 
Dublin, and when his friend Thomas Davis died 
he became editor of the Dublin Nation. It was 
Davis who wrote: 

"What matter that at different shrines 

We pray unto one God? 
What matter that at different times 

Our fathers won this sod? 

In fortune and in name we're bound 

By stronger links than steel ; 
And neither can be safe or sound 

But in the other's weal. 

And oh, it were a gallant deed 

To show before mankind 
How every race and every creed 

Might be by love combined ! 

John Mitchel held that England would never 
grant freedom to Ireland except through fear 
and compulsion. Events have proven the 
soundness of his opinions. His name is, next to 
Emmet, engraven on true hearts. When sen- 
tenced to 14 years' transportation across the 
seas to convict colonies, he made answers to his 
judges which live to start the watchfires of 
liberty blazing. We think of his invocation to 
his countrymen as he was removed to the 



Hopes and Fears 283 

steamer, manacled with heavy chains fastened 
to his arms and his limbs : 

The game is afoot at last. The liberty of Ireland 
may come sooner or later, by peaceful negotiation or 
bloody conflict, but it is sure. 

Emmet, Tone, Mitchel, Martin, Meagher, 
Rossa, all true patriots, were in a minority in 
their own country, and yet they left the only 
enduring monuments. We forget that Patrick 
Henry and Thomas Jefferson were leaders of 
a minority who effected successful revolution 
and established the republic. Woodrow Wil- 
son, writing of the early works of his prede- 
cessors in the WTiite House, says: 

It is the familiar story of revolution ; the active and 
efficient concert of a comparatively small number at 
a moment of doubt and crisis. 

Those who study the great conflagration 
which convulses the world must perceive that 
the awful struggle is for the power and survival 
of races. Where lies the interest of the Irish 
race when at the end either England or Ger- 
many shall dominate three-fourths of the earth? 

There are 60,000 British troops under arms 
in Ireland. There is, on the average, a standing 



284 What Could Germany Do For Ireland? 

army of some 30,000 guarding the island in 
times of peace. Mr. John Eedmond, leader of 
the Irish party in the House of Commons, made 
a great hit in that body and in England when 
he declared that this standing army could safely 
leave Ireland and fight for the empire in Flan- 
ders, and thus help to save Belgium, and urged 
the government to arm the Irish Volunteers, 
who would defend the shores of Erin and perish 
to the last man rather than let the dreaded Ger- 
man invaders land on their soil. The writer 
was in Dublin at the time and asked one of the 
officers of the Irish Volunteers why they were 
so enthusiastic over the plan, and he whispered : 
**Sure, it means guns for us to fight Carson's 
men in the North, who have guns, and we know 
the Germans won't invade Ireland; and it sends 
the regular soldiers all away to fill the trenches 
while we stay home and 'save and defend' Ire- 
land." Needless to say, the government re- 
fused to heed Mr. Redmond's appeal, and the 
regular army remains on the island to nip in- 
surrection and rebellion in the bud, aided by 
18,000 armed government constabulary and 
5,000 retired police. Rebellion without arms 



Hopes and Fears 285 

would be abortive, and risings would prove in- 
effective and disastrous to well-meaning but 
unfortunate patriots, who would be quickly shot 
down. 

As England controls the customs and all ports 
on the island, the difficulty of obtaining suf- 
ficient arms to effect rebellions is well nigh in- 
superable. A few modern rifles and machine 
guns would destroy an army of badly armed 
men. All of the numerous revolutions in Ire- 
land have failed for want of preparedness. 
Traitors and informers have invariably be- 
trayed the leaders. Lord Edward Fitzgerald, 
leader in 1798, was betrayed and killed before 
the uprising of that year. The two famous 
brothers, Henry and John Sheares, were be- 
trayed and hanged ; they, too, were arrested be- 
fore the uprising. On the hills of Tara in 1798 
a body of insurgents, 4,000 strong, mostly un- 
armed, were destroyed. In the sections of the 
country where the rebels were armed and 
trained, the revolution made progress and the 
men of Wexford held the gap until their am- 
munition was exhausted. Of course, the leaders 
were hanged; they included Father John 



286 What Could Germany Do For Ireland? 

Murphy, Bagenal Harvey, and Matthew Keogh. 
The troops then proceeded to kill all of the men 
and women they could find in the section of the 
country traversed by rebels. There was lack 
of strategy and concert of action. The move- 
ment in the North was delayed awaiting orders. 
The County Antrim rebels, under Henry Joy 
McCracken, won the town of Antrim after an 
attack, but the military were reinforced and 
McCracken was taken and hanged on the same 
day. In County Down the rebels captured 
Saintfield under Munro, but later they were de- 
feated at the battle of Ballynahinch and Munro 
was hanged at his own door. After the rebel- 
lion had been crushed the French sent over a 
force of about a thousand men, and later 4,000, 
including the great patriot, Theobald Wolfe 
Tone. They arrived in their ships off Donegal, 
where they were attacked and defeated by a 
superior British squadron. Tone was sentenced 
to be hanged but begged to be shot, which peti- 
tion being denied him, he cut his throat with a 
pen-knife. Four years later, Robert Emmet, 
relying on aid from Napoleon, led a revolution 
of a few hundred men, poorly armed, and he 



Hopes and Fears 287 

was hanged, and his name is sacred in history. 
The revolutions of 1848 and 1865 have been 
described elsewhere. In every case there was 
woeful lack of arms and organization. Ireland 
is under martial law; the people live under an 
arbitrary statute known as the Defence of the 
Eealm Act^ and a citizen has only to criticize 
the government methods to find himself im- 
prisoned or run out of the country. Free speech 
and a free press do not exist in the land. 



CHAPTER XIX 

HOME EXILE XJNDEK THE SPOT-LIGHTS 

The Home Eule bill provides for a purely local 
Parliament, and a careful reading of the meas- 
ure proves the country will not be able to de- 
velop its resources under its terms. American 
newspaper editors who have never seen a copy 
of the bill argue as though the act was as broad 
and liberal as the laws of Canada or Australia, 
which create tariffs, establish shipping, and are 
self-governing, aside from connection with the 
Crown and the* Privy Council solely on court ap- 
peals. The bill is certain to be amended with 
the best part of Ulster left out. The troops re- 
cruited from the Orange section of Ulster will 
resist the execution of the act. They will have 
very great popular support in England on the 
ground that they have shown great loyalty and 
must not be governed by the other section of 
the country after the war. There are new finan- 
cial amendments that are absolutely necessary 
to make the act workable, occasioned by the 

288 



Home Rule Under the Spot-Lights 289 

changing of taxation and revenues during the 
war. The government which granted the meas- 
ure after the outbreak of war (part of a recruit- 
ing program) has broken down, and is not 
likely to be returned at the next election. The 
most likely compromise measure is one which 
will leave out the chief industrial boroughs of 
Ulster, and such a measure would do little good, 
and some harm, as the poorer sections of Ire- 
land would bear the whole burden of the new 
government. 
The text of the Home Rule Act follows : 

Sept. 18, 1914 

An Act to amend the provision for the government 
of Ireland. 

Be it enacted by the King's most excellent Majesty, 
by and with the advice and consent of the Lords 
spiritual and temporal and Commons in this present 
Parliament assembled and by the authority of the 
same, as follows : 

LEGISLATrVE AUTHORITY 

1. On and after the appointed day there shall be 
in Ireland an Irish Parliament, consisting of His 
Majesty the King and two houses, namely, the Irish 
Senate and the Irish House of Commons. 

2. Notwithstanding the establishment of the Irish 
Parliament or anything contained in this Act, the 
supreme power and authority of the Parliament of 
the United Kingdom shall remain unaffected and un- 



290 What Could Germany Do For Ireland? 

diminished o^er all persons, matters and things within 
His Majesty's dominions. 

The Irish Parliament shall not have power to make 
laws in respect of the following matters, in particu- 
lar, or any of them, namely : 

1. The Crown, or the succession to the Crown, or a 
Regency or the Lord Lieutenant, except as respects 
the exercise of his executive power in relation to Irish 
services as defined for the purposes of this Act. Or 
(2) The making of peace or war or matters arising 
from a state of war or the regulation of the conduct 
of any portion of His Majesty's subjects during the 
existence of hostilities between foreign states with 
which His Majesty is at peace in relation to those 
hostilities: or (3) the navy, the army, the territorial 
force or any other naval or military force or the de- 
fence of the realm, or any other naval or military 
matter; or (4) treaties of any relations with foreign 
states or relations with other parts of His Majesty's 
Dominions, or offences connected with any such 
treaties, or relations, or procedure connected with the 
extradition of criminals under any treaty, or the re- 
turn of fugitive offenders from or to any part of His 
Majesty's Dominions; or (5) dignities or titles of 
honor; or (6) treason, felony, alienage naturalization, 
or aliens as such; or (7) trade with any place out of 
Ireland (except so far as trade may be affected by the 
exercise of the powers of taxation given to the Irish 
Parliament, or by the regulation of importation for 
the sole purpose of preventing contagious disease), 
quarantine or navigation, including merchant ship- 
ping (except as respects inland waters and local 
health or harbor regulations) ; or (8) lighthouses, 
buoys or beacons (except so far as they can consis- 
tently with any general Act of the Parliament of the 
United Kingdom be constructed or maintained by a 
local harbor authority) ; or (9) coinage, legal tender, 
or any change in the standard of weights and meas- 



Home Rule Under the Spot-Lights 291 

ures; or (10) trade-marks, designs, merchandise 
marks, copyright or patent rights; or (11) any of the 
following matters (in this Act referred to as reserved 
matters), namely: (a) the general subject matter o£ 
the Acts relating to land purchase in Ireland; the 
Old Age Pension Acts, 1908 and 1911; the National 
Insurance Act, 1911 ; and the Labor Exchanges Act, 
1909; (b) the collection of taxes; (c) the Eoyal Irish 
Constabulary, and the management and control of 
that force; (d) Post Office Savings Banks, Trustee 
Savings Banks, and friendly societies; and (e) public 
loans made in Ireland before the passing of this Act, 
provided that the limitation on the powers of the Irish 
Parliament under this section shall cease as respects 
any such reserved matter if the corresponding re- 
served service is transferred to the Irish Government 
under the provisions of this Act. Any law made in 
contravention of the limitations imposed by this sec- 
tion shall so far as it contravenes those limitations be 
void. 

EXECUTIVE AUTHORITY 

Clause 4. — (1) The Executive power in Ireland 
shall continue vested in His Majesty the King, and 
nothing in this Act shall affect the exercise of that 
power, except as respects Irish services as defined for 
the purposes of this Act. (2) As respects those Irish 
services the Lord Lieutenant or other chief executive 
officer or officers for the time being appointed in his 
place on behalf of His Majesty, shall exercise any 
prerogative or other executive power of His Majesty, 
the exercise of which may be delegated to him by His 
Majesty. (3) The power so delegated shall be ex- 
ercised through such Irish departments as may be es- 
tablished by Irish Act or subject thereto by the Lord 
Lieutenant, and the Lord Lieutenant may appoint of- 
ficers to administer those departments, and those of- 



292 What Could Germany Do For Ireland? 

ficers shall hold office during the pleasure of the Lord 
Lieutenant. (4) The persons who are for the time 
being heads of such Irish departments as may be de- 
termined by Irish Act or in the absence of any such 
determination by the Lord Lieutenant and such other 
persons (if any) as the Lord Lieutenant may appoint, 
shall be the Irish Ministers. 

IRISH PARLIAMENT 

1. There shall be a session of the Irish Parliament 
once at least in every year. 

2. The Lord Lieutenant shall in His Majesty's 
name summon and prorogue and dissolve the Irish 
Parliament. 

7. The Lord Lieutenant shall give or withhold the 
consent of His Majesty to bills passed by the two 
Houses of the Irish Parliament, subject to the follow- 
ing limitations, namely: (1) He shall comply with 
any instructions given by His Majesty the King in 
respect of any such bill; and (2) he shall, if so di- 
rected by the King, postpone giving the assent of His 
Majesty to any such bill presented to him for assent 
for such period as His Majesty may direct. 

The merest tyro in reading legislative acts 
will see the pitfalls, handicaps and manacles in- 
cluded in the foregoing measure. The arms of 
the people are fettered. There can be no hope 
of new industries under an act which prohibits 
the government from exercising any control 
over every essential element that might tend to 
revive industry and create or distribute wealth. 



Home Rule Under the Spot-Lights 293 

Here follow some of the restrictions in the 
Home Rule Act, in addition, which plainly pre- 
vent the freedom of Ireland in essentials : 

The Irish Parliament or people cannot nomi- 
nate or elect the Lord Lieutenant who is the 
Governor of Ireland under the act. 

No provision can be made by the Irish Gov- 
ernment for the defense of the country. 

If England was at war with the United 
States, Ireland, under this act, would also be at 
war with the United States, although the Irish 
Parliament and people would certainly have no 
difference with the land which has given them 
shelter, prosperity and honors. 

The Irish Government cannot raise an army. 
Under the act, the Irish Volunteers, therefore, 
must disband. 

Ireland would be prohibited from making 
trade and commercial treaties with the United 
States and other countries. 

As in the days of the Navigation Acts, which 
enabled England to destroy Irish shipping, the 
Home Rule Bill again clinches the strangle hold 
on a possible Irish merchant marine by prevent- 
ing the Irish Government from ** granting of 



294 What Could Germany Do For Ireland? 

bounties on the export of goods, quarantine, or 
navigation, including mercliant shipping.'' 

Canada, Australia, South Africa, New Zea- 
land, and other British colonies have their own 
postage and revenue stamps and mint their own 
coins; all this is expressly prohibited by the 
Home Rule Act. 

When the doors of the Irish Parliament are 
thrown open for the first time, the then Irish 
Government will have no power over: 

(a) Land Purchase in Ireland, the Old Age Pen- 
sions, the National Insurance Act, and the Labor Ex- 
changes Acts. These remain under the control of the 
British Parliament. 

(b) The Irish Government cannot collect the taxes 
levied on the people of Ireland. England, under 
Clause 2 of Section 14, will appoint and control the 
tax collectors, and keep the accounts and the cash, 
graciously handing back just sufficient to pay for 
Irish services. The English Treasury now charges 
Ireland with contributing less than is expended in the 
country. Under the new system, the charge can be 
maintained and possibly proved, as England is to do 
the bookkeeping. Anyway, England will have the 
cash, and he who holds the purse is finally supreme 
in all matters. He who pays controls — except in Ire- 
land. 

(3) The Irish Government will not control the po- 
lice force in Ireland, though the Irish people pay for 
their upkeep. This force has always been part of 
England's armed garrison in Ireland. England will 



Home Rule Under the Spot-Lights 295 

continue to control this force for six years after the 
initiation of the Irish Parliament, so as to ensure that 
the behavior of the Irish people, aye, and of Irish leg- 
islators, is all that she could desire. The mandarins 
of the Irish Constabulary will still continue to ter- 
rorize the unarmed people of Ireland. 

(d) The Irish Government will have no authority 
or control over the Post Office Savings Banks, Trustee 
Savings Banks, and Friendly Societies in Ireland. 
And for a very good reason. England wants the use 
of Irish monies for the development of her own re- 
sources. Close upon $80,000,000, being deposits in 
Post Office and Trustee Savings Banks in Ireland, the 
savings of her people, are transferred to England for 
investment in Government securities. This grave eco- 
nomic injury to Ireland will have to continue, even 
though a "Home Eule" Parliament sits in Dublin, 
for it is laid down in the Act that such institutions 
cannot come under the control of the Irish Parlia- 
ment until the Irish Parliament, both Houses, passes 
a resolution to that effect, nor even then until a 
period of ten years has elapsed from the appointed 
day. What these government securities, in which 
these $80,000,000 Irish savings have been wrongfully 
invested, may be now worth is conjectural in the ex- 
treme. But Ireland cannot have the use of her own 
money for many years after the Irish Parliament has 
come into being. 

(e) The Irish Parliament cannot interfere with 
public loans made in Ireland before the passing of the 
Act. 



And to the foot of these twelve clauses of 
Section 2 of the act the following is appended : 
**Any law made in contravention of the limita- 



296 What Could Germany Do For Ireland? 

tions imposed by this section shall, so far as it 
contravenes those limitations, be void.'' 

Section 4 lays it down that it is the Lord Lieu- 
tenant, and not the Irish Government, who will 
appoint officers to administer Irish Depart- 
ments established by the act, and those officers 
shall hold office during the pleasure of the Lord 
Lieutenant, and not during the pleasure of the 
Irish Parliament. Furthermore, it is such of- 
ficers who will form the Irish Ministry and **be 
an Executive Committee of the Privy Council 
of Ireland, to aid and advise the Lord Lieu- 
tenant in the exercise of his executive power in 
relation to Irish services.'' Also, the Lord 
Lieutenant can appoint other persons as Irish 
Ministers, though they may not be heads of 
Irish Departments. Whilst clause (a) of this 
section lays it down that only members of the 
Privy Council of Ireland can become Irish Min- 
isters, or heads of Irish Departments under the 
Irish Parliament, even Mr. John Eedmond and 
his colleagues are not, at present, eligible to 
hold office as Irish Ministers, since they have 
not the magic letters * * P. C. " after their names. 
That is the least honor, no doubt, which the 



Home Rule Under the Spot-Lights 297 

Castle will bestow upon Mr. Eedmond for his 
faithful services on behalf of the permanence 
of British rule in Ireland. But, under this pro- 
vision, the Castle will be in a position to extract 
full allegiance to the British Crown and Consti- 
tution from such Irish miscalled nationalists 
whom John Redmond may subserviently ask the 
Lord Lieutenant to appoint as heads of Irish 
Departments. 

Section 8 expressly states that the first Irish 
Senate of forty members shall be nominated by 
the Lord Lieutenant, subject to any instructions 
given by His Majesty in respect to the nomina- 
tion. Here it is secured that the upper house 
of the new Irish Parliament shall at the outset 
consist of creatures of Castle Rule in Ireland. 
No doubt, England's faithful garrison in Ire- 
land will be rewarded with a majority of the 
seats in this chamber. Anyway, those so nomi- 
nated will feel constrained to act solely in Eng- 
land's interest during their period of office. 
The **Home Rule" Parliament must be piloted 
through its earlier years by the tried and true 
upholders of British domination in Ireland. 
The Irish people cannot be trusted, even under 



298 What Could Germany Do For Ireland? 

a *^Home Rule" Parliament, to remain loyal to 
English institutions in Ireland. 

Section 10, clause (2) declares that except in 
pursuance of a recommendation from the Lord 
Lieutenant, the Irish House of Commons shall 
not adopt or pass any vote, resolution, address 
or bill for the appropriation, for any purpose, 
of any part of the public revenue of Ireland or 
of any tax. Here is **Poyning's Law" re- 
peated, except in so far as the Lord Lieutenant 
is substituted for the English Privy Council. 
The last Irish Parliament (1782-1800) had com- 
plete control of Irish taxation, revenue and 
trade. This **Home Rule" Parliament yet-to- 
be cannot initiate measures for the betterment 
of Irish conditions unless the Lord Lieutenant 
directs and approves. 

Section 15 debars the Irish Parliament from 
imposing or charging a customs duty, whether 
an import or an export duty, or varying, except 
by way of addition, any customs duty levied as 
an Imperial tax, or any excise duty so levied 
where there is a corresponding customs duty. 
That is to say, so long as free trade suits Eng- 
lish conditions, so long must Ireland remain 



Home Bute Under the Spot-Lights 299 

under the same fiscal laws, whether free trade, 
as such, suits Irish conditions or otherwise. 
Furthermore, should the English Parliament 
change from free trade to a protective or tariff- 
for-revenue country, Ireland must follow suit, 
whether such a change may or may not suit 
Irish economic needs and requirements. Fur- 
thermore, this section makes it very clear that 
at no time can the Irish Parliament protect 
Irish industries from the unfair competition in 
Ireland of Manchester products, and English 
manufactures generally. Ireland and Irish 
trade and commerce do not count under an Irish 
Parliament. At least, so says England, and 
John Eedmond has, to his eternal shame, ac- 
quiesced in this betrayal of Irish industries. 
But, of course, if the Irish Parliament chooses 
to tax Irish industries out of existence, the act 
leaves the way clear for the Irish Government 
so to do. 

Section 22 creates a Joint Exchequer Board, 
consisting of two members appointed by the 
British Treasury and two members appointed 
by the Irish Treasury, and a chairman ap- 
pointed by His Majesty. The appointment of 



300 What Could Germany Do For Ireland? 

the chairman by the English Government gives 
England a majority on the Joint Exchequer 
Board. Thus England protects her own inter- 
ests for all time. Mr. Redmond and his fol- 
lowers allowed this clause to be inserted in the 
act without challenge or protest. It gives Eng- 
land the whip hand every time, as * * the decision 
of the Board on any matter which is to be de- 
termined by them shall be final and conclusive. ' ' 
And the smooth working of the whole Irish Par- 
liament depends altogether upon the finances 
available for Irish services. Points of dispute 
will assuredly arise from time to time, but ma- 
jority rule will prevail, and Ireland ^s two rep- 
resentatives will be powerless against Eng- 
land's three. 

Sections 28 and 29 recognize the right of an 
individual to contest a decision of the Irish Su- 
preme Court by carrying the same to His 
Majesty the King in Council, that is, to the 
Privy Council of England, and where an indi- 
vidual may claim that an act of the Irish Par- 
liament, or any provision thereof, or any Irish 
bill or provision thereof, is beyond the powers 
of the Irish Parliament, or whether any service 



Home Rule Under the Spot-Lights 301 

is an Irish service within the meaning of the 
act or not, same may be represented to the Eng- 
lish Privy Council for determination. Thus 
England ingeniously sets a pitfall for the se- 
curity of the new Irish Parliament. England's 
word will be final in all matters, notwithstand- 
ing the existence of the Home Rule Parliament 
in Dublin. Thus any crank in the country can 
call in question every act of the new Irish Par- 
liament, and by appealing to Mother England, 
embitter feeling in Ireland and spread a dis- 
trust and disregard of the legality of Irish acts 
throughout the whole country. Thus it may, 
under this cleverly worded section, be shown 
that the Irish are incapable of ruling them- 
selves, as has been so freely stated by their en- 
emies. 

But, as if all these restrictions, reservations, 
etc., were not sufficiently clear indications of 
England's determination to have the Irish Par- 
liament subordinate to the Parliament at Lon- 
don, clause (2) of the very first section of the 
act declares that ** notwithstanding the estab- 
lishment of the Irish Parliament or anything 
contained in the Government of Ireland Act, 



302 What Could Germany Do For Ireland? 

1914, the supreme power and authority of the 
Parliament of the United Kingdom shall remain 
unaffected and undiminished over all persons, 
matters, and things in Ireland and every part 
thereof." Furthermore, clause (1) of section 
4 stipulates that **the executive power in Ire- 
land shall continue vested in His Majesty the 
King, and nothing in this act shall affect the 
exercise of that power except as respects Irish 
services as defined for the purposes of the act." 
Again, as if emphasizing the unimportance of 
the Irish legislature, section 7 of the act em- 
powers the Lord Lieutenant to give or withhold 
the assent of His Majesty to bills passed by 
the two houses of the Irish Parliament, subject 
to the following limitations, namely: 

(a) He shall comply with any instructions given by 
His Majesty in respect of any such Bill ; and 

(b) He shall, if so directed by His Majesty, post- 
pone giving the assent of His Majesty to any such 
Bill presented to him for assent for such period as 
His Majesty may direct. 

Verily, if His Britannic Majesty (which, of 
course, means His Majesty's English advisers 
or government) chooses to hang up indefinitely 
any bill of the Irish Parliament, there is no au- 



Home Rule Under the Spot-Lights 303 

thority in the Home Rule Act to turn the Irish 
bill into an Irish act. Yet, fearing that the 
Irish Parliament might invent a means to es- 
cape the legal labyrinth of restrictions con- 
tained in the act, section 41 expressly lays it 
down that **the Irish Parliament shall not have 
power to repeal or alter any provision of this 
act (except as is specially provided by this act), 
or of any act passed by the Parliament of the 
United Kingdom after the passing of this act, 
and extending to Ireland, although that pro- 
vision deals with a matter with respect to which 
the Irish Parliament have powers to make 
laws." And lest, by any chance, this happy lan- 
guage might be, by any possibility, vague or 
open to a construction other than that intended, 
clause (2) of the same section adds that ** where 
any act of the Irish Parliament deals with any 
matter with respect to which the Irish Parlia- 
ment have power to make laws which is dealt 
with by any act of the Parliament of the United 
Kingdom passed after the passing of this act 
and extending to Ireland, the act of the Irish 
Parliament shall be read subject to the act of 
the Parliament of the United Kingdom, and so 



304 What Could Germany Do For Ireland? 

far as it is repugnant to that act, but no fur- 
ther, shall be void/' These two clauses of sec- 
tion 41, to which very little attention has been 
paid by the parliamentarians in Ireland, undo 
the whole * ^ Government of Ireland Act, 1914,'' 
since this section clearly stipulates that the 
London Parliament can continue making laws 
to govern the people of Ireland, without any 
regard to or respect for the existence of the 
Parliament at Dublin, or the laws framed by 
the Irish Parliament. Thus England honors 
her own ** scrap of paper" by making provision 
in the Home Eule Act to the effect that laws 
framed and passed in England can be enforced 
by statute in Ireland. This is but a cursory 
glance at this precious ' * Home Eule Act, ' ' now 
on the statute book of Westminster, which 
weak and false leaders have accepted as ^*a final 
settlement," and for which they ask their coun- 
trymen to sacrifice their lives and the future 
of their nation in the trenches of Europe and 
Asia. The one thankful feature of the ugly 
situation is that Irishmen have begun to realize 
the sham and farce of the whole proceedings, 
and that the financial condition of England is 



Home Rule Under the Spot-Lights 305 

sucli that this wretched measure of ^* Home 
Eule^' cannot be put into operation after the 



war. 



CONCLUSION 

*'No, I do not despair of my country. I see 
her in lethargy, but not in the throes of death. 
She is not dead, but only sleeping."- — Henry 
Grattan. 

^E must not become discouraged over the ap- 
parent abject, supine and helpless condition of 
the people of Ireland. The heart of the people 
is sound and beats true. They have no sources 
of information beyond the medium of the official 
censored press bureau ; the island, from end to 
end, lives under the Defence of the Eealm Act, 
which, for all practical purposes, is martial law. 
They read no printed word or hear no spoken 
word save the false notes which aim to convince 
the Irish race that the Germans are like the 
ruthless Huns and barbarians, who will not hes- 
itate to kill their women and children. The 
leaders who have betrayed the land for offices, 
honors, munition orders, war billets, social, 
legal or business advancement have one false 
but effective cry, for they never tire of ringing 
the changes on the appeal to the poor people to 

306 



Conclusion 307 

go off to the Dardanelles, to Flanders, to the 
Balkans, to suffer and die in order that Catholic 
Ireland shall be revenged on Germany for the 
destruction of Catholic Belgium. That such a 
red herring could be successfully dragged 
across the trail of Irish Nationality is a sad 
commentary on the low spirit, benumbed senses 
and lack of reasoning powers of sections of the 
race, only the inevitable result of several cen- 
turies of suffering and oppression. 

What earthly practical interest have the Irish 
in saving Belgium or Serbia when they cannot 
save themselves and put Ireland on the map of 
small nations? Are they still so blind as not to 
recognize the death of both Belgium and Serbia, 
whatever the outcome of the war! The sur- 
render of Antwerp exposed the hand of Eng- 
land, which had only sent a few thousand men 
to the relief of Belgium, basely deserting the 
brave little army, by failure of a supporting 
army, in her hour of agony, after forcing her 
by threats to resist Germany. The world sees 
the Serbian armies destroyed and this small na- 
tion ruined despite the British promises of as- 
sistance, which were not fulfilled. We see 



308 What Could Germany Do For Ireland? 

Greece invaded and her cities threatened with 
bombardment because she insists on being neu- 
tral. The remnants of the Celtic race should be 
as much concerned over the fate of Greece at 
the hands of England, and of Persia under Eus- 
sia, as to worry over the state of Belgium or 
Serbia. The Irish people should think more of 
their own possibly wretched fate after the war. 
The British Empire is simply made up of a 
confederation of states and territories con- 
quered by England and the strangest delusion 
is the absurd fetish that she is the saviour of 
small nations. The immediate fate of Belgium, 
Serbia, Macedonia and Persia at this hour ought 
to force the blinders off Irish eyes. 

The author has shown there can be no hope 
for an industrial Ireland under the domination 
of England. The defeat and the consequent ex- 
haustion of the British Empire may be followed 
by its disintegration. Such result is not impos- 
sible in the light of history, wherein is found the 
roll of world powers extinguished by internal 
diseases and external foes. The war between 
England and France enabled America to dis- 
cover a George Washington to liberate the col- 



Conclusion 309 

onists from the thralldom of English rule. The 
eternal sentinels of liberty guarded the peaks 
of little Switzerland while her children took ad- 
vantage of the warring nations surrounding her 
to bring freedom to her valleys and mountains. 
Will the decimated race, threatened with its 
utter extinction, produce a chieftain in Ireland 
who will lead the clans to the heights of liberty 
and save the submerging of the people in this 
unholy and unjust war designed to destroy the 
youth of a land fated not to receive any national 
benefit even in victory, and the only certainty — 
Death! 



SEVENTH EDITION 

The most widely circulated war book of the year 

The King, The Kaiser^ Irish Freedom 

By JAMES K. McGUIRE 

320 Pages. Cloth Bound. One Dollar, Postpaid 

The nvork is prohibited from circulation in Ireland and Canada. 
All Americans should read it. 

Los Angeles Examiner — The book is a strong presentation and well worth 
study. Over here we hear little of this because Ireland is under martial law, 
the press is rigidly censored and any expression of opinion unpleasant to the 
government is followed by immediate arrest. 

Neiv York Staats-Zeitung — The German-American citizens owe much to the 
brilliant genius of Mr. McGuire in his great work, which will live long after 
the war. 

Neiv Haven Union — Written in a wonderfully fascinating style and, by far, 
the most powerful and pleasing and often stirring appeal for Germany and an 
Irish Republic. 

Ireland, Dublin — A few copies reached Donegal, Mayo and Galway. They 
were at once seized and destroyed and the distributers arrested. 

Cologne German Gazette — This striking story is being printed in Germany 
and will have enormous circulation. 

Independent, Butte, Montana — By far, this is the most popular and powerful 
plea for justice to Germany that has appeared in book form. 

San Francisco Chronicle — The writer shows that England has no intention 
of giving Ireland Home Rule, and that in the future, as in the past, she will 
corrupt the leaders of the Irish cause. The book has a number of historical 
^acts, but the writer appears to be suffering from excessive hatred of England. 

Western Watchman, St. Louis, Mo. — "The King, the Kaiser and Irish Free- 
dom" is attracting more attention. The majority of thinking Irishmen are read- 
ing with newer and more enthusiastic hopes. 

The Irish World, New York — This book is most opportune and right up to 
the minute. It should be in the hands of every man who desires to know the 
real condition of affairs in Europe. The author is a realist of the first water 
and speaks to a great extent from experience; an extensive traveler of many 
accomplishments. The work is readable as a novel, and the interest never flags 
from start to finish. 

Pittsburgh Leader — This work has attracted tremendous interest throughout 
the State of Pennsylvania, and is a work replete with interest. 
^ Pittsburgh Dispatch — The Germanest German document that has appeared 
since the war began is written by a man without German blood in his veins. 

Hartford Courant — He adroitly and with much* truth credits England with 
much subtler diplomacy than her enemies. He makes a point when he quotes 
approval of the fine practice of American guns, when in '48 the tower was hit 
of the Vera Cruz Cathedral, and the condemnations which were showered on 
German artillerists for destruction at Rheims. 

Louisville Courier- Journal — The author made a serious mistake in confining 
the work to one volume. He shows his familiarity with both subjects and 
handles them in an able manner. Many interesting events are related in 
different parts of the volume. 



